Evaluating the virulence of a Brucella melitensis hemagglutinin gene in the caprine model.

With the completion of the genomic sequence of Brucella melitensis 16M, a putative hemagglutinin gene was identified which is present in 16M and absent in Brucella abortus. The possibility of this hemagglutinin being a potential virulence factor was evaluated via gene replacement in B. melitensis yielding 16MΔE and expression in trans in B. abortus 2308-QAE. Utilizing the caprine brucellosis model, colonization and pathogenesis studies were performed to evaluate these strains. B. melitensis 16M hemagglutinin gene expression in trans in 2308-QAE revealed a significant (p≤0.05) increase in colonization and abortion rates when compared to B. abortus 2308, mimicking B. melitensis 16M virulence in pregnant goats. The B. melitensis disruption mutant's colonization and abortion rates demonstrated no attenuation in colonization but displayed a 28% reduction in abortions when compared to parental B. melitensis 16M.

Spiroplasma spp. from transmissible spongiform encephalopathy brains or ticks induce spongiform encephalopathy in ruminants.

Spiroplasma, small motile wall-less bacteria, are linked by molecular and serological studies to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which include scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. In this study, two experiments were undertaken to determine the role of spiroplasma in the pathogenesis of TSE. In experiment 1, Spiroplasma mirum, a rabbit tick isolate that had previously been shown to experimentally induce spongiform encephalopathy in rodents, was inoculated intracranially (IC) into ruminants. S. mirum-inoculated deer manifested clinical signs of TSE after 1.5 to 5.5 months incubation. The deer, as well as sheep and goats, inoculated with S. mirum developed spongiform encephalopathy in a dose-dependent manner. In experiment 2, spiroplasma closely related to S. mirum were isolated from TSE-affected brains via passage in embryonated eggs, and propagated in cell-free M1D media. Spiroplasma spp. isolates from scrapie-affected sheep brain and from CWD-affected deer brain inoculated IC into sheep and goats induced spongiform encephalopathy closely resembling natural TSE in these animals. These data show spiroplasma to be consistently associated with TSE, and able experimentally to cause TSE in ruminant animal models, therein questioning the validity of studies that have concluded the prion, a miss-folded protease-resistant protein that builds up in TSE brains during the course of the disease, to be the sole causal agent. The spiroplasma infection models reported here will be important for investigating factors involved in the pathogenesis of TSE since ruminants are the natural hosts.

Identification of Brucella melitensis 16M genes required for bacterial survival in the caprine host.

Brucella species are gram-negative bacteria which belong to alpha-Proteobacteria family. These organisms are zoonotic pathogens that induce abortion and sterility in domestic mammals and chronic infections in humans known as Malta fever. The virulence of Brucella is dependent upon its ability to enter and colonize the cells in which it multiplies. The genetic basis of this aspect is poorly understood. Signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM) was used to identify potential Brucella virulence factors. PCR amplification has been used in place of DNA hybridization to identify the STM-generated attenuated mutants. A library of 288 Brucella melitensis 16M tagged mini-Tn5 Km2 mutants, in 24 pools, was screened for its ability to colonize spleen, lymph nodes and liver of goats at three weeks post-i.v. infection. This comparative screening identified 7 mutants (approximately 5%) which were not recovered from the output pool in goats. Some genes were known virulence genes involved in biosynthesis of LPS (lpsA gene) or in intracellular survival (the virB operon). Other mutants included ones which had a disrupted gene homologous to flgF, a gene coding for the basal-body rod of the flagellar apparatus, and another with a disruption in a gene homologous to ppk which is involved in the biosynthesis of inorganic polyphosphate (PolyP) from ATP. Other genes identified encoded factors involved in DNA metabolism and oxidoreduction metabolism. Using STM and the caprine host for screening, potential virulence determinants in B. melitensis have been identified.

Evaluation of novel Brucella melitensis unmarked deletion mutants for safety and efficacy in the goat model of brucellosis.

Pregnant goats were employed to assess unmarked deletion mutant vaccine candidates BMDeltaasp24, BMDeltacydBA, and BMDeltavirB2, as the target host species naturally infected with Brucella melitensis. Goats were assessed for the degree of pathology associated with the vaccine strains as well as the protective immunity afforded by each strain against abortion and infection after challenge with wild-type Brucella melitensis 16M. Both BMDeltaasp24 and BMDeltavirB2 were considered safe vaccine candidates in the pregnant goat model because they did not cause abortion or colonize fetal tissues. BMDeltaasp24 was isolated from the maternal tissues only, indicating a slower rate of clearance of the vaccine strain than for BMDeltavirB2, which was not isolated from any maternal or fetal tissues. Both strains were protective against abortion and against infection in the majority of pregnant goats, although BMDeltaasp24 was more efficacious than BMDeltavirB2 against challenge infection.

Role of catalase in the virulence of Brucella melitensis in pregnant goats.

An isogenic katE mutant derived from virulent Brucella melitensis 16M displays hypersensitivity to hydrogen peroxide in disk sensitivity assays but retains the capacity to colonize pregnant goats and induce abortion. These experimental findings indicate that although the sole periplasmic catalase of Brucella melitensis functions as an antioxidant, this enzyme does not play a critical role in virulence in the natural host.