Identification of Possible Virulence Marker from Campylobacter jejuni Isolates - Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Identification of Possible Virulence Marker from Campylobacter jejuni Isolates - Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014

Dispatch

Identification of Possible Virulence Marker fromCampylobacter jejuni Isolates

Article Contents

• The Study
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Figure 1
• Figure 2
• Table
• Technical Appendix - 873 KB 
• Suggested Citation

James W. Harrison, Tran Thi Ngoc Dung, Fariha Siddiqui, Sunee Korbrisate, Habib Bukhari, My Phan Vu Tra, Nguyen Van Minh Hoang, Juan Carrique-Mas, Juliet Bryant, James I. Campbell, David J. Studholme, Brendan W. Wren, Stephen Baker, Richard W. Titball, and Olivia L. Champion 

Author affiliations: University of Exeter, Exeter, UK (J.W. Harrison, D.J. Studholme, R.W. Titball, O.L. Champion); The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (T.T.N. Dung, M.P.V. Tra, N.V.M. Hoang, J. Carrique-Mas, J. Bryant, J.I. Campbell, S. Baker); Comsats University, Islamabad, Pakistan (F. Siddiqui, H. Bukhari); Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand (S. Korbrisate); University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (J. Carrique-Mas, J. Bryant, J.I. Campbell, S. Baker); London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK (B.W. Wren)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

A novel protein translocation system, the type-6 secretion system (T6SS), may play a role in virulence of Campylobacter jejuni. We investigated 181 C. jejuni isolates from humans, chickens, and environmental sources in Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom for T6SS. The marker was most prevalent in human and chicken isolates from Vietnam.

Campylobacter species are the principal bacterial cause of human foodborne enterocolitis worldwide (1). Despite the global significance of C. jejuni as a leading cause of diarrheal disease (2), the mechanisms of pathogenesis of C. jejuni are not well understood. Research onCampylobacter epidemiology has largely been conducted in high-income countries and therefore may not be representative of global patterns.

Recently, a novel class of protein translocation system was identified in gram-negative bacteria. This system, named the type-6 secretion system (T6SS), has been found to play roles in pathogen–pathogen and host–pathogen interactions and has a major effect on virulence in a range of pathogens, including Vibrio cholerae (3–6) (reviewed in 7,8). A functional T6SS was recently identified in C. jejuni (9,10) and found to have several roles in virulence, influencing cell adhesion, cytotoxicity toward erythrocytes, and colonization of mice (9,10). However, it is unknown whether T6SS changes the effects of these pathogens in human infection.

In this study, we aimed to determine whether presence of T6SS in C. jejuni is potentially a marker associated with more severe human disease. Moreover, because human infection withC. jejuni is often associated with contact with poultry, we investigated whether poultry harborC. jejuni that possess T6SS.

Mr Harrison is a PhD student at the University of Exeter under the supervision of D.S. His research focuses on using bioinformatic methods to investigate the comparative genomics of emerging diseases and plant-associated microbes.

Acknowledgments

We thank Konrad Paszkiewicz and Karen Moore for assistance with whole-genome sequencing.

The work was partly supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, award BB/1024631/1 to R.T., D.S., and O.C.; by a Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award (WT097835MF); and by a studentship awarded to J.H.

References

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4. Ishikawa T, Sabharwal D, Bröms J, Milton DL, Sjöstedt A, Uhlin BE, Pathoadaptive conditional regulation of the type VI secretion system in Vibrio cholerae O1 strains. Infect Immun. 2012;80:575–84. DOIPubMed
5. Parsons DA, Heffron F. sciS, an icmF homolog in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, limits intracellular replication and decreases virulence. Infect Immun. 2005;73:4338–45. DOIPubMed
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8. Mulder DT, Cooper CA, Coombes BK. Type VI secretion system-associated gene clusters contribute to pathogenesis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Infect Immun.2012;80:1996–2007. DOIPubMed
9. Lertpiriyapong K, Gamazon ER, Feng Y, Park DS, Pang J, Botka G, Campylobacter jejunitype VI secretion system: roles in adaptation to deoxycholic acid, host cell adherence, invasion, and in vivo colonization. PLoS ONE. 2012;7:e42842. DOIPubMed
10. Bleumink-Pluym NMC, van Alphen LB, Bouwman LI, Wösten MMSM, van Putten JPM.Identification of a functional type VI secretion system in Campylobacter jejuni conferring capsule polysaccharide sensitive cytotoxicity. PLoS Pathog. 2013;9:e1003393. DOIPubMed
11. Kuşkonmaz B, Yurdakök K, Yalçin SS, Ozmert E. Comparison of acute bloody and watery diarrhea: a case control study. Turk J Pediatr. 2009;51:133–40 .PubMed
12. Harris NV, Weiss NS, Nolan CM. The role of poultry and meats in the etiology ofCampylobacter jejuni/coli enteritis. Am J Public Health. 1986;76:407–11. DOIPubMed
13. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Agribusiness handbook: poultry meat and eggs. 2010 [cited 2013 Apr 1].http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/tci/docs/1_AH9-Poultry%20Meat%20&%20Eggs.pdf 

Figures

• Figure 1. Distribution of the type-six secretion system (T6SS) marker across the phylogenetic diversity of Campylobacter jejuni strains, as determined by multilocus sequence analysisWe generated a maximum-likelihood tree from concatenated nucleotide...
• Figure 2. Percentage of hcp-positive Campylobacter jejuni strains isolated from patients in Vietnam who had bloody diarrhea and nonbloody diarrheaPatients who were hospitalized because of Cjejuni infection were scored for the...

Table

• Table. Overview of Campylobacter jejuni strains containing type-six secretion system genetic marker hcp, by country and isolate source

Technical Appendix

• Technical Appendix. Supplementary methods and primers used to identify hcp and gltA genes inCampylobacter jejuni, lists of Cjejuni strains included in analyses, prevalence of type-six secretion system (T6SS) genetic marker... 873 KB 

Suggested citation for this article: Harrison JW, Dung TTN, Siddiqui F, Korbrisate S, Bukhari H, Tra MPV, et al. Identification of possible virulence marker from Campylobacter jejuni isolates. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2014 Jun [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2006.130635

DOI: 10.3201/eid2006.130635