Differences in Inflammation Patterns Induced by African and Asian Burkholderia pseudomallei Isolates in Mice

Abstract

Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, an emerging tropical disease of high mortality. Sub-Saharan Africa represents potential melioidosis "hotspots"; however, to date, only a few cases have been reported.Here in, we compared the inflammatory patterns induced by a B. pseudomallei strain recently isolated froma fatal Gabonese case with the Thai reference strain B. pseudomallei-1026b and Burkholderia thailandensis-E264. Ex vivo, no differences were observed in terms of cellular responsiveness between strains. However, when compared with the B. pseudomallei-1026b strain, the Gabonese isolate was significantly less virulent in terms of bacterial dissemination, inflammatory response, and organ damage in mice. Genomic comparison between strains showed differences in regions containing a fimbriae/adhesion virulence protein. In addition to a lack of microbiology facilities, differences in virulence of Burkholderia strainsmight contribute to the diverse global clinical occurrence of melioidosis.