Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and microbiome profile of patients in a referral gastrointestinal diseases centre in the Sudan

Abstract

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) causes Johne’s disease in animals with zoonotic potential; it has been linked to many chronic diseases in humans, especially gastrointestinal diseases (GID). MAP has been extensively studied in Europe and America, but little reports were published from Africa. Sudan is a unique country with close contact between humans and livestock. Despite such interaction, the one health concept is neglected in dealing with cases of humans with GID. In this study, patients admitted to the reference GID hospital in the Sudan over a period of 8 months were screened for presence of MAP in their faeces or colonic biopsies. A total of 86 patients were recruited for this study, but only 67 were screened for MAP, as 19 did not provide the necessary samples for analysis. Both real-time PCR and culture were used to detect MAP in the collected samples and the microbial diversity in patients´ faecal samples was investigated using 16S rDNA nanopore sequencing. In total, 27 (40.3%) patients were MAP positive: they were 15 males and 12 females, of ages between 21 and 80 years. Logistic regression analysis revealed no statistical significance for all tested variables in MAP positive patients (occupation, gender, contact with animal, milk consumption, chronic disease, etc.). A unique microbiome profile of MAP-positive patients in comparison to MAP-negative was found. These findings suggest that a considerable proportion of the population could be MAP infected or carriers. Therefore, increase awareness at community level is urgently needed to decrease the risk of MAP at human/animal interface. This study represents the first report of MAP in humans in the Sudan; nevertheless, a better view of the situation of MAP in humans in the country requires a larger study including patients with other conditions.

A Machine Learning Approach Reveals a Microbiota Signature for Infection with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Cattle

“…In the case of Planococcaceae , no population was observed in any MAP-infected animals in this study. In addition, the genera Alistipes (negative, 4.65 ± 1.52; positive, 2.94 ± 0.86; Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.001) and Paraprevotella (negative, 0.13 ± 0.15; positive, 0.08 ± 0.11; Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.001) were significantly decreased by MAP infection in this study, which is consistent with other studies ( 36 , 37 ), whereas the overrepresentation of Firmicutes (negative, 56.18 ± 7.09; positive, 62.83 ± 7.33; Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.01), Enterococcus (negative, 0.03 ± 0.06; positive, 0.07 ± 0.05; Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.001), and Streptococcus (negative, 0.03 ± 0.09; positive, 0.08 ± 0.12; Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.05) in the MAP-infected group was observed, which was also reported for MAP-infected animals and humans ( 37 , 38 ). In the case of Actinobacteria , there is controversy regarding its population change due to MAP infection.…”

First Report on Ovine Paratuberculosis in the Sudan: Diagnosis Using Different Techniques

“…However, our experience with human faecal cultures for MAP made at the same time is in total contrast to these findings. We found that culture is more sensitive than DNA detection by real-time PCR for MAP in human faecal or tissue samples [ 34 ].…”

“…Countrywide investigations would reveal the prevalence of the disease in other states. Besides being a production-limiting disease, it is gaining more public health importance as the association between MAP and some human diseases is garnering more support [ 7 , 34 ].…”

Amyloid, Crohn’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease - are they linked?

“…( Arumugam et al., 2011 ; Carrière et al., 2014 ), Actinobacteria (e.g., Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis) ( McNees et al., 2015 ; Elmagzoub et al., 2022 ), and also viruses (e.g., norovirus, polyomavirus, anellovirus, herpesvirus, adenovirus, sapovirus, rotavirus) ( Haag et al., 2015 ; Lecuit and Eloit, 2017 ; Cao et al., 2022 ; Matsuzawa-Ishimoto et al., 2022 ; Dehghani et al., 2023 ; Ding et al., 2023 ) and fungi (e.g., Candida spp. ) ( Šašala et al., 2020 ; Di Martino et al., 2022 ).…”