Plague: History and contemporary analysis

Raoult, Didier; Mouffok, Nadjet; Bitam, Idir; Piarroux, Renaud; Drancourt, Michel

doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2012.09.010

Cited by 110 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Pneumonic plague is typically diagnosed in humans following observations of lymphadenopathy, fever, myalgia, lethargy, chills, and may include chest pain, cough, and rales. 3,4 However, many diagnoses are made retrospectively due to the low incidence of disease. Due to the potential person-to-person transmission of pneumonic plague, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers this disease to be a serious potential threat and have listed Y pestis as a category A threat, the highest risk threat for potential bioterrorism agents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preclinical Safety Assessment of a Recombinant Plague Vaccine (rF1V)

Price¹,

Manetz²,

Shearer³

et al. 2013

Int J Toxicol

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A recombinant vaccine (rF1V) is being developed to protect adults 18 to 55 years of age from fatal pneumonic plague caused by aerosolized Yersinia pestis. A comprehensive series of studies was conducted to evaluate the general toxicity and local reactogenicity of the rF1V vaccine prior to first use in humans. Toxicity was evaluated in CD-1 mice vaccinated with control material and three dosage concentrations of rF1V with or without Alhydrogel(®) by intramuscular (IM) injection on Study Days 1, 29, 57 and 71 in a volume of 0.1 mL. Total immunizing protein given in each dose was 0, 20 or 60 μg/animal. Local reactogenicity was evaluated in mice at the dosages given and in New Zealand white (NZW) rabbits using the same injection volume and formulations (40, 80, 160 and 320 μg/mL total antigen and 0.3% (w/v) Alhydrogel(®)) intended for human use (0.5 mL). The rF1V vaccine produced no apparent systemic toxicity and only transient edema and erythema at the injection site. Together these results indicated a favorable safety profile for rF1V and supported its use in a Phase 1 clinical trial.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preclinical Safety Assessment of a Recombinant Plague Vaccine (rF1V)

Price¹,

Manetz²,

Shearer³

et al. 2013

Int J Toxicol

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“…Plague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis 12. Post-genomic analyses confirmed that Y. pestis was derived from the environmental bacteria Yersinia pseudotuberculosis 3,000 to 6,000 years ago in Central Asia and gradually spread from east to west along the historical tracks of human migration such as the Silk Road34567.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It exhibits a different epidemiological regimen characterized by epidemics circumscribed in time and in more limited geographical areas that are called plague foci23. These epidemics are linked to transmission of Y. pestis by small wild mammal ectoparasites without inter-human transmission1. Moreover, small outbreaks are linked with contact with infected cats24 or consumption of infected meat25 and sporadic cases described at the southern border of the United States are due to direct contact with infected wild animal carcasses26.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In North Africa, plague foci are still active as illustrated by the resurgence of the plague after 53 years of silence in Oran, Algeria, for which genetic analyses confirmed a local and not imported strain of Y. pestis 27. In these foci, plague is a zoonosis since the Y. pestis bacterium is introduced into populations from infected animals1. These constitute a link in an epidemiological chain involving a balanced transmission between plague-susceptible and plague-resistant species28.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Yersinia pestis halotolerance illuminates plague reservoirs

Malek

Bitam

Levasseur

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The plague agent Yersinia pestis persists for years in the soil. Two millennia after swiping over Europe and North Africa, plague established permanent foci in North Africa but not in neighboring Europe. Mapping human plague foci reported in North Africa for 70 years indicated a significant location at <3 kilometers from the Mediterranean seashore or the edge of salted lakes named chotts. In Algeria, culturing 352 environmental specimens naturally containing 0.5 to 70 g/L NaCl yielded one Y. pestis Orientalis biotype isolate in a 40 g/L NaCl chott soil specimen. Core genome SNP analysis placed this isolate within the Y. pestis branch 1, Orientalis biovar. Culturing Y. pestis in broth steadily enriched in NaCl indicated survival up to 150 g/L NaCl as L-form variants exhibiting a distinctive matrix assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry peptide profile. Further transcriptomic analyses found the upregulation of several outer-membrane proteins including TolC efflux pump and OmpF porin implied in osmotic pressure regulation. Salt tolerance of Y. pestis L-form may play a role in the maintenance of natural plague foci in North Africa and beyond, as these geographical correlations could be extended to 31 plague foci in the northern hemisphere (from 15°N to 50°N).

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“…> Depuis 1894 et la découverte par Alexandre Yersin de la bactérie responsable de la peste qui porte son nom, Yersinia pestis [1], l'étiologie des épi-démies qui ont décimé d'abord le bassin méditerranéen, puis l'Europe, depuis deux mille ans, est maintenant connue [2]. Il y a 20 ans, nos travaux pionniers avaient montré que ces grandes épidé-mies qui déferlaient depuis le XI e siècle, étaient bien causées par Y. pestis et qu'il s'agissait sans aucun doute d'épidémies de peste [3,4].…”

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