Project description:Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is a leading cause of infectious death worldwide. Gene-expression microarray studies profiling the blood transcriptional response of tuberculosis (TB) patients have been undertaken in order to better understand the host immune response as well as to identify potential biomarkers of disease. To date most of these studies have focused on pulmonary TB patients with gene-expression profiles of extra-pulmonary TB patients yet to be compared to those of patients with pulmonary TB or sarcoidosis. Methods A novel cohort of patients with extra-pulmonary TB and sarcoidosis was recruited and the transcriptional response of these patients compared to those with pulmonary TB using a variety of transcriptomic approaches including testing a previously defined 380 gene meta-signature of active TB. Results The 380 meta-signature broadly differentiated active TB from healthy controls in this new dataset consisting of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB. The top 15 genes from this meta-signature had a lower sensitivity for differentiating extra-pulmonary TB from healthy controls as compared to pulmonary TB. We found the blood transcriptional responses in pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB to be heterogeneous and to reflect the extent of symptoms of disease. Conclusions The transcriptional signature in extra-pulmonary TB demonstrated heterogeneity of gene expression reflective of symptom status, while the signature of pulmonary TB was distinct, based on a higher proportion of symptomatic individuals. These findings are of importance for the rational design and implementation of mRNA based TB diagnostics.
Project description:Members of the Mycobacterium (M.) abscessus complex (MABC) are rapidly growing mycobacteria showing smooth and/or rough colony morphotype. While not as virulent as M. tuberculosis, they can cause soft tissue infection and fatal pulmonary disease, especially in patients with cystic fibrosis. Diagnosing MABC pulmonary disease is challenging since the isolation of M. abscessus from respiratory samples is in itself not diagnostic and the clinical features are often non-specific. Immunologic assays, which could aid in the understanding and diagnosis of the disease, are not available. In this study eight rough and six smooth colony morphotype isolates were collected from seven clinical MABC strains and the M. abscessus reference strain ATCC19977, as six strains showed both morphotypes simultaneously and two strains only showed a rough morphotype. Clinical isolates were submitted to whole genome sequencing. Quantitative proteomic analysis was performed on bacterial lysates and the culture supernatant of all 14 isolates. Supernatant proteins present in all isolates were compared in a BLAST search against other clinically significant mycobacterial species to determine species-specific proteins of MABC. In silico B- and T-cell epitope prediction was performed for species-specific proteins. All clinical strains were found to be M. abscessus ssp. abscessus. Six of seven rough colony clinical isolates contained genetic changes in the MAB_4099c gene, which is a likely genetic basis for the rough morphotype. Proteomic analysis detected 3 137 different proteins in total of which 79 proteins were found in the culture supernatants of all isolates. BLAST analyses of these 79 proteins identified 12 of those exclusively encoded by all members of MABC plus M. immunogenum. In silico prediction of epitopes predicted B- and T-cell epitopes in all these 12 species-specific proteins, rendering them promising candidates for future studies on immune pathogenesis and immune diagnostic tools for MABC disease.
Project description:Tuberculosis (TB) remains a deadly disease. The genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was neglected in the past, but is increasingly recognized as a determinant of immune responses and clinical outcomes of TB. However, how this bacterial diversity orchestrates immune responses to direct differences in TB severity remains unknown. We studied 681 patients with pulmonary TB and found that phylogenetically related M. tuberculosis isolates from cases with mild disease induced robust cytokine responses in macrophages. In contrast, isolates associated with severe TB cases failed to do so. Using representative isolates, we show that M. tuberculosis inducing a low cytokine response in macrophages also diminished activation of cytosolic surveillance systems, including cGAS and the inflammasome, suggesting a novel mechanism of immune escape. Isolates exhibiting this evasion strategy carried mutations in various components of the ESX-I secretion system. We conclude that host interactions with different M. tuberculosis strains results in variable TB severity.
Project description:Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a facultative intracellular pathogen, responsible for causing tuberculosis. The harsh environment in which M. tuberculosis survives requires this pathogen to maintain an evolutionary advantage. However, the apparent absence of horizontal gene transfer in M. tuberculosis imposes restrictions in the ways by which evolution can occur. Large scale changes in the genome can be introduced through genome reduction, recombination events and structural variation. Here, we identify a functional chimeric protein in the ppe38-71 locus, the absence of which is known to have an impact on protein secretion and virulence. To examine whether this approach was used more often by this pathogen we further develop software that detects potential gene fusion events from multigene deletions using whole-genome sequencing data. With this software we could identify a number of other putative gene-fusion events within the genomes of M. tuberculosis isolates. We were able to demonstrate the expression of one of these gene fusions at the protein level using mass spectrometry. Therefore, gene fusions may provide an additional means of evolution for M. tuberculosis in its natural environment whereby novel proteins and functions can arise.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in China comparing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis with drug sensitive one.
Project description:Background. The Beijing family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is dominant in countries in East Asia. Genomic polymorphisms are a source of diversity within the M.tuberculosis genome and may account for the variation of virulence among M.tuberculosis isolates. To date there are no studies that have examined the genomic composition of M.tuberculosis isolates from the high TB-burden country, Myanmar. Methodology/Principle findings. Twenty-two M.tuberculosis isolates from Myanmar were screened on whole-genome arrays containing genes from M.tuberculosis H37Rv, M.tuberculosis CDC1551 and M.bovis AF22197. Screening identified 198 deletions or extra regions in the clinical isolates compared to H37Rv. Twenty-two regions differentiated between Beijing and non-Beijing isolates and were verified by PCR on an additional 40 isolates. Six regions (Rv0071-0074 [RD105], Rv1572-1576c [RD149], Rv1585c-1587c[RD149], MT1798-Rv1755c [RD152], Rv1761c [RD152] and Rv0279c) were deleted in Beijing isolates, of which 4 (Rv1572-1576c, Rv1585c-1587c, MT1798-Rv1755c and Rv1761c) were variably deleted among ST42 isolates, indicating a closer relationship between the Beijing and ST42 lineages. The TbD1 region, Mb1582-Mb1583 was deleted in Beijing and ST42 isolates. One M.bovis gene of unknown function, Mb3184c was present in all isolates, except 11 of 13 ST42 isolates. The CDC1551 gene, MT1360 coding for a putative adenylate cyclase, was present in all Beijing and ST42 isolates (except 1). The pks15/1 gene, coding for a putative virulence factor, was intact in all Beijing and non-Beijing isolates, except in ST42 and ST53 isolates. Conclusion. This study describes previously unreported deletions/extra regions in Beijing and non-Beijing M.tuberculosis isolates. The modern and highly frequent ST42 lineage showed a closer relationship to the hypervirulent Beijing lineage than to the ancient non-Beijing lineages. The pks15/1 gene was disrupted only in modern non-Beijing isolates. This is the first report of an in-depth analysis on the genomic diversity of M.tuberculosis isolates from Myanmar. Data is also available from http://bugs.sgul.ac.uk/E-BUGS-66
2008-09-26 | E-BUGS-66 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Whole genome sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains from pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis patients
Project description:Differences in the activity of monocytes/macrophages, important target cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, might influence tuberculosis progression. With the purpose of identifying candidate genes for tuberculosis susceptibility we infected with M. tuberculosis monocytes from both, healthy elders (a tuberculosis susceptibility group) and elderly tuberculosis patients, and performed a microarray experiment. We detected 78 differentially expressed transcripts and confirmed these results by quantitative PCR of selected genes. We found that monocytes from tuberculosis patients showed similar expression patterns of these genes regardless of whether they were obtained from younger or elder patients. Only one of the detected genes corresponded to a cytokine: IL-26, a member of the IL-10 cytokine family that we found downregulated in infected monocytes from tuberculosis patients. We have analyzed total RNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infected monocytes. We have isolated CD14+ cells (monocytes) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells by magnetic separation, and infected them for 4 days with 1 bacterium per monocyte. Blood donors were 7 elderly patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (average age: 83 years; sex: 3 men and 4 women) and 8 non-tuberculous volunteers (81 years, 6 men and 2 women).