Severe Case of Rickettsiosis Identified by Metagenomic Sequencing, China.

A case of Rickettsia sibirica subspecies sibirica BJ-90 infection in China was identified by metagenomic analysis of an eschar biopsy specimen and confirmed by nested PCR. Seroprevalence of spotted fever group Rickettsia was ≈17.4% among the local population. This report highlights the threat of rickettsioses to public health in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Human brucellosis in the People's Republic of China during 2005-2010.

Brucellosis is a worldwide re-emerging zoonotic disease. It remains a serious public health problem in many developing countries including China. This review summarizes the epidemiological characteristics, morbidity, and endemic distributions of human brucellosis in the People's Republic of China for the period 2005-2010. From 2005 to 2010, the incidence of human brucellosis rose substantially in China, especially in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi3, Heilongjiang, Hebei, Jilin, and Shanxi1. Meanwhile human brucellosis increased gradually in some southern provinces, such as Henan, Guangdong, and Fujian. Due to the rapid expansion of human brucellosis in China, surveillance and prevention of this disease has been greatly challenged.

Cytotoxicity of Brucella smooth strains for macrophages is mediated by increased secretion of the type IV secretion system.

Some Brucella rough mutants cause cytotoxicity that resembles oncosis and necrosis in macrophages. This cytotoxicity requires the type IV secretion system (T4SS). In rough mutants, the cell-surface O antigen is shortened and the T4SS structure is thus exposed on the surface. Cytotoxicity effector proteins can therefore be more easily secreted. This enhanced secretion of effector proteins might cause the increased levels of cytotoxicity observed. However, whether this cytotoxicity is unique to the rough mutant and is mediated by overexpression of the T4SS has not been definitively determined. To test this, in the present study, a virB inactivation mutant (BMDeltavirB) and an overexpression strain (BM-VIR) of a smooth Brucella melitensis strain (BM) were constructed and their cytotoxicity for macrophages and intracellular survival capability were analysed and compared. Cytotoxicity was detected in macrophages infected with higher concentrations of strains BM or BM-VIR, but not in those infected with BMDeltavirB. The quorum sensing signal molecule N-dodecanoyl-dl-homoserine lactone (C(12)-HSL), a molecule that can inhibit expression of virB, inhibited the cytotoxicity of BM and BM-VIR, but not of BMDeltavirB. These results indicated that overexpression of virB is responsible for Brucella cytotoxicity in macrophages. Transcription analysis showed that virB is regulated in a cell-density-dependent manner both in in vitro culture and during macrophage infection. When compared with BM, BM-VIR showed a reduced survival capacity in macrophages and mice, but both strains demonstrated similar resistance to in vitro stress conditions designed to simulate intracellular environments. Taken together, the cytotoxicity of Brucella for macrophages is probably mediated by increased secretion of effector proteins that results from overexpression of virB or an increase in the number of bacterial cells. The observation that both inactivation and overexpression of virB are detrimental for Brucella intracellular survival also indicated that the expression of virB is tightly regulated in a cell-density-dependent manner.

Comparative proteomics analyses reveal the virB of B. melitensis affects expression of intracellular survival related proteins.

BACKGROUND: Brucella melitensis is a facultative, intracellular, pathogenic bacterium that replicates within macrophages. The type IV secretion system encoded by the virB operon (virB) is involved in Brucella intracellular survival. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms, especially the target proteins affected by the virB, remain largely unclear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to define the proteins affected by virB, the proteomes of wild-type and the virB mutant were compared under in vitro conditions where virB was highly activated. The differentially expressed proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF-MS. Forty-four down-regulated and eighteen up-regulated proteins which exhibited a 2-fold or greater change were identified. These proteins included those involved in amino acid transport and metabolism, lipid metabolism, energy production, cell membrane biogenesis, translation, post-translational modifications and protein turnover, as well as unknown proteins. Interestingly, several important virulence related proteins involved in intracellular survival, including VjbR, DnaK, HtrA, Omp25, and GntR, were down-regulated in the virB mutant. Transcription analysis of virB and vjbR at different growth phase showed that virB positively affect transcription of vjbR in a growth phase dependent manner. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that transcription of these genes was also affected by virB during macrophage cell infection, consistent with the observed decreased survival of the virB mutant in macrophage. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data indicated that the virB operon may control the intracellular survival of Brucella by affecting the expression of relevant proteins.

Screening of human antibody Fab fragment against HBsAg and the construction of its dsFv form.

The objective of this study was to pursue the techniques involving the screening of the human antibody Fab fragment against hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and the construction of its disulfide-stabilized Fv fragment (dsFv). The phage antibody Fab fragments against HBsAg were screened from the human combinatorial immunoglobulin library. Sequence analysis revealed that its heavy chain gene was complete, but the light chain gene was lost. To improve the affinity of the antibody by chain shuffling, a human antibody light chain gene repertoire was generated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from the human peripheral blood lymphocytes. A phage antibody sub-library was then constructed by inserting the light chain gene repertoire into the phagmid that contained the Fd gene. Five clones with appreciably higher absorbance than that of the original clones were obtained, which indicated that the affinity of the light chain-shuffled phage antibodies was improved. Then, the mutated genes of dsFv against HBsAg were constructed by using PCR-based point mutagenesis method. Purified V(H) and V(L) proteins were folded into a 25-kDa protein, designated as anti-HBsAg dsFv. ELISA and competition ELISA revealed that the dsFv maintained the specificity of the Fab by binding to HBsAg, even through with a lower binding activity. These results have facilitated the undertaking of further functional analyses of the constructed dsFv, and may therefore provide an improved technique for the production and application of dsFvs against HBsAg.