ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2014
Investigating the role of free-living amoebae as a reservoir for Mycobacterium ulcerans.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- A need for null models in understanding disease transmission: the example of Mycobacterium ulcerans (Buruli ulcer disease).FEMS microbiology reviews · 2022Pooled it
- The role of Acanthamoeba spp. in biofilm communities: a systematic review.Parasitology research · 2021Pooled it
- Free-living amoebae and their role inFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Systematic review: Global host range, case fatality and detection rates ofJournal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2024Review
- Isolation and Genomic Analysis of an Intracellular Mycobacterium gordonae from a Free-LivingMicrobiology resource announcements · 2022Article
- Linking theOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Review
- Understanding the transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans: A step towards controlling Buruli ulcer.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Review
- Modelling the spatial distribution of aquatic insects (Order Hemiptera) potentially involved in the transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans in Africa.Parasites & vectors · 2018Article
- The many lives of nontuberculous mycobacteria.Journal of bacteriology · 2018Article
- EnvironmentalFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2018Article
- Buruli Ulcer, a Prototype for Ecosystem-Related Infection, Caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2018Review
- Diversity of free-living amoebae in soils and their associated human opportunistic bacteria.Parasitology research · 2017Article
- High-Throughput Carbon Substrate Profiling of Mycobacterium ulcerans Suggests Potential Environmental Reservoirs.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Article
- Article
- Spatiotemporal Co-existence of Two Mycobacterium ulcerans Clonal Complexes in the Offin River Valley of Ghana.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2016Article
- Taxonomy, Physiology, and Natural Products of Actinobacteria.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2016Review
- Article
- Prevalence of intestinal parasites among patients of a Ghanaian psychiatry hospital.BMC research notes · 2015Article
- Yersinia pseudotuberculosis IP32953 survives and replicates in trophozoites and persists in cysts of Acanthamoeba castellanii.FEMS microbiology letters · 2015Article
- Ecological niche modelling of Hemipteran insects in Cameroon; the paradox of a vector-borne transmission for Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer.International journal of health geographics · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe reservoir and mode of transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer, still remain a mystery. It has been suggested that M. ulcerans persists with difficulty as a free-living organism due to its natural fragility and inability to withstand exposure to direct sunlight, and thus probably persists within a protective host environment. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsWe investigated the role of free-living amoebae as a reservoir of M. ulcerans by screening the bacterium in free-living amoebae (FLA) cultures isolated from environmental specimens using real-time PCR. We also followed the survival of M. ulcerans expressing green fluorescence protein (GFP) in Acanthameoba castellanii by flow cytometry and observed the infected cells using confocal and transmission electron microscopy for four weeks in vitro. IS2404 was detected by quantitative PCR in 4.64% of FLA cultures isolated from water, biofilms, detritus and aerosols. While we could not isolate M. ulcerans, 23 other species of mycobacteria were cultivated from inside FLA and/or other phagocytic microorganisms. Laboratory experiments with GFP-expressing M. ulcerans in A. castellani trophozoites for 28 days indicated the bacteria did not replicate inside amoebae, but they could remain viable at low levels in cysts. Transmission electron microscopy of infected A. castellani confirmed the presence of bacteria within both trophozoite vacuoles and cysts. There was no correlation of BU notification rate with detection of the IS2404 in FLA (r = 0.07, n = 539, p = 0.127). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study shows that FLA in the environment are positive for the M. ulcerans insertion sequence IS2404. However, the detection frequency and signal strength of IS2404 positive amoabae was low and no link with the occurrence of BU was observed. We conclude that FLA may host M. ulcerans at low levels in the environment without being directly involved in the transmission to humans.
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