First isolation of human Leptospira strains, Azores, Portugal

Gonçalves, Ana Teresa; Paiva, Clara; Melo-Mota, Francisco; Vieira, Maria Luísa; Nunes, Mónica; Mota-Vieira, Luísa; Ahmed, Ahmed; Harstkeerl, Rudy A.; Hyde, Karyne; Collares-Pereira, Margarida

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2009.12.004

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…(i) PCR for characterization: For characterization of Leptospira a variety of approaches have been described, including the use of repetitive elements [60,[141][142][143], insertion elements [58,[144][145][146] and restriction enzyme fragmented DNA as amplification targets [147][148][149] as well as arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) of whole genomic DNA [29, [150][151][152][153][154][155].…”

Section: Application Of Pcr-based Techniques For Typingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Approaches in the Detection and Characterization of Leptospira

Ahmed¹,

Grobusch²

2012

J Bacteriol Parasitol

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Conventional diagnosis of leptospirosis and characterization of Leptospira spp. relies mainly on serology. A major drawback of serology in diagnosis is that it needs sufficient levels of anti-Leptospira antibodies, thus jeopardizing confirmation in the early acute phase of disease. The cross agglutinin absorption test (CAAT) that determines Leptospira serovars is a technically demanding and laborious method and therefore is only performed at a few laboratories. Novel molecular diagnostic tests mainly rely on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR perfectly complements serological testing, since it is especially sensitive in the first 5 days after onset of symptoms. Real time PCR is rapid and has been validated for their high clinical accuracy. The introduction of molecular techniques for defining Leptospira species revolutionized the categorization of strains in this genus, as species and serogroups appeared to show little correlation. The reference test in molecular speciation is based on determining DNA homology. This approach is tedious and user-unfriendly and therefore is increasingly replaced by other techniques. To date, a wealth of molecular typing methods is available. Most attractive are those techniques that provide direct digital and electronically portable data. Such techniques comprise fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (FAFLP), array typing, multilocus variable number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) and sequence-based phylogeny, and to some extent pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is the most robust method for determining Leptospira strain diversity and in the future will probably only be surpassed by phylogeny on whole genome sequences.

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Section: Application Of Pcr-based Techniques For Typingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Approaches in the Detection and Characterization of Leptospira

Ahmed¹,

Grobusch²

2012

J Bacteriol Parasitol

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“…Analysis of rodent Leptospira was unfortunately excluded due to a lack of comparable sequence datasets and host taxonomic diversity. Although there is a long history of research on leptospirosis in rodents, the publicly available sequence data that has been obtained thus far covers only a handful of rodent host species distributed across 3 genes: secY, flab,and lipL3 [52][53][54][55][56]. We also test whether evolutionary patterns and bacterial host specificity differ between the New World and Old World bat and rodent hosts, as was previously observed for Bartonella [22,24,48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Contrasting Patterns in Mammal–Bacteria Coevolution: Bartonella and Leptospira in Bats and Rodents

Lei

Olival

2014

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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BackgroundEmerging bacterial zoonoses in bats and rodents remain relatively understudied. We conduct the first comparative host–pathogen coevolutionary analyses of bacterial pathogens in these hosts, using Bartonella spp. and Leptospira spp. as a model.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe used published genetic data for 51 Bartonella genotypes from 24 bat species, 129 Bartonella from 38 rodents, and 26 Leptospira from 20 bats. We generated maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenies for hosts and bacteria, and tested for coevoutionary congruence using programs ParaFit, PACO, and Jane. Bartonella spp. and their bat hosts had a significant coevolutionary fit (ParaFitGlobal = 1.9703, P≤0.001; m2 global value = 7.3320, P≤0.0001). Bartonella spp. and rodent hosts also indicated strong overall patterns of cospeciation (ParaFitGlobal = 102.4409, P≤0.001; m2 global value = 86.532, P≤0.0001). In contrast, we were unable to reject independence of speciation events in Leptospira and bats (ParaFitGlobal = 0.0042, P = 0.84; m2 global value = 4.6310, P = 0.5629). Separate analyses of New World and Old World data subsets yielded results congruent with analysis from entire datasets. We also conducted event-based cophylogeny analyses to reconstruct likely evolutionary histories for each group of pathogens and hosts. Leptospira and bats had the greatest number of host switches per parasite (0.731), while Bartonella and rodents had the fewest (0.264).Conclusions/SignificanceIn both bat and rodent hosts, Bartonella exhibits significant coevolution with minimal host switching, while Leptospira in bats lacks evolutionary congruence with its host and has high number of host switches. Reasons underlying these variable coevolutionary patterns in host range are likely due to differences in disease-specific transmission and host ecology. Understanding the coevolutionary patterns and frequency of host-switching events between bacterial pathogens and their hosts will allow better prediction of spillover between mammal reservoirs, and ultimately to humans.

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“…), rats ( Rattus spp.) and European hedgehog ( Erinaceus europaeus ) (Collares‐Pereira et al, ) but also from humans (Goncalves et al, ). In mainland Portugal, isolates of the serogroup Pomona have been reported in domestic (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity of pathogenic leptospires from wild, domestic and captive host species in Portugal

Ferreira

Ahmed

Rocha

et al. 2019

Transbound Emerg Dis

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Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution with a significant veterinary and public health impact. It is caused by pathogenic bacteria of the genus Leptospira. The availability of effective tools to accurately identify and type leptospires is of utmost importance for the diagnosis of the disease and for assessing its epidemiology. Several multi‐locus sequence typing (MLST) approaches were described for the typing of worldwide isolates of Leptospira but an extensive agreement towards the adoption of a unique consensus scheme for this agent is still lacking. Most genotyped strains originate from Asian and South American countries, with a minority originating from Europe (being most countries represented only by one or a few isolates). The knowledge of the diversity of circulating leptospires is the key to understanding the disease transmission and its zoonotic implications. In this study, we revisited the taxonomy of several isolates of pathogenic Leptospira obtained from domestic, wild and captive animals in Portugal, between 1990 and 2012. A selection of these isolates was genotyped using two previously published MLST schemes. A total of seven distinct sequence types (STs) were detected among the Portuguese isolates with two STs representing L. borgpetersenii (ST149 and ST152), two STs representing L. kirschneri (ST117 and ST100) and three STs representing L. interrogans (ST17, ST24 and ST140). Global widespread (and maybe more virulent) Leptospira genotypes seem to circulate in Portugal, particularly the L. interrogans ST17 isolates which are associated with several outbreaks of leptospirosis among humans and animals in different regions of the world. This study contributes to the enrichment of the global MLST databases with a new set of allele and sequence type information also providing novel data on circulating Leptospira serovars in Portugal.

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First isolation of human Leptospira strains, Azores, Portugal

Abstract: This study represents a great step towards the definitive identification of the pathogenic leptospires in Azorean patients and confirms the bacteriological human-rodent connection for the first time.

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Molecular Approaches in the Detection and Characterization of Leptospira

Molecular Approaches in the Detection and Characterization of Leptospira

Contrasting Patterns in Mammal–Bacteria Coevolution: Bartonella and Leptospira in Bats and Rodents

Genetic diversity of pathogenic leptospires from wild, domestic and captive host species in Portugal

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