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The molecular and cellular basis of pathogenesis in melioidosis: How does Burkholderia pseudomallei cause disease?

journal contribution
posted on 2021-02-16, 22:59 authored by NR Lazar Adler, B Govan, Meabh Cullinane, M Harper, B Adler, JD Boyce
Melioidosis, a febrile illness with disease states ranging from acute pneumonia or septicaemia to chronic abscesses, was first documented by Whitmore & Krishnaswami (1912). The causative agent, Burkholderia pseudomallei, was subsequently identified as a motile, gram-negative bacillus, which is principally an environmental saprophyte. Melioidosis has become an increasingly important disease in endemic areas such as northern Thailand and Australia (Currie et al., 2000). This health burden, plus the classification of B. pseudomallei as a category B biological agent (Rotz et al., 2002), has resulted in an escalation of research interest. This review focuses on the molecular and cellular basis of pathogenesis in melioidosis, with a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge on how B. pseudomallei can cause disease. The process of B. pseudomallei movement from the environmental reservoir to attachment and invasion of epithelial and macrophage cells and the subsequent intracellular survival and spread is outlined. Furthermore, the diverse assortment of virulence factors that allow B. pseudomallei to become an effective opportunistic pathogen, as well as to avoid or subvert the host immune response, is discussed. With the recent increase in genomic and molecular studies, the current understanding of the infection process of melioidosis has increased substantially, yet, much still remains to be elucidated. © 2009 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Funding

The original work in the authors' laboratories was supported by the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra, Australia.

History

Publication Date

2009-11-01

Journal

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Volume

33

Issue

6

Pagination

(p. 1079-1099)

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS

ISSN

0168-6445

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The Author reserves all moral rights over the deposited text and must be credited if any re-use occurs. Documents deposited in OPAL are the Open Access versions of outputs published elsewhere. Changes resulting from the publishing process may therefore not be reflected in this document. The final published version may be obtained via the publisher’s DOI. Please note that additional copyright and access restrictions may apply to the published version.

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