克罗诺杆菌分子分型及毒力机制研究进展

Recent Progress in Molecular Typing and Virulence Mechanism of Cronobacter

克罗诺杆菌是一种急性细菌病原体,最初因与新生儿重症监护室爆发的几起致死性疾病(脑膜炎、坏死性小肠结肠炎)相关而受到人们广泛关注。近年来,关于该菌属的多样性已经有了清晰的认识,并且已经开发了多种检测和分型方法。常用的分型方法包括生化分型、脉冲场凝胶电泳分型及基于DNA序列的分型(单基因分型、O-血清分型、多位点序列分型、单核苷酸多态性分型)和规律成簇的间隔短回文重复序列(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,CRISPR)-cas。克罗诺杆菌属的7个种之间毒力作用存在差异,外膜蛋白和外膜囊泡在侵染引发细胞病变过程中发挥了重要作用,唾液酸的利用可能具有临床意义。目前该属菌株毒力机制研究结论尚未统一,基因测序所揭示的大量毒力因子仍需进一步验证。克罗诺杆菌分型方法在促进该菌分类学发展的同时也为其毒力机制研究奠定了基础。

Cronobacter, an acute bacterial pathogen, has attracted extensive attention for causing several fatal outbreaks in neonatal intensive care units including meningitis and necrotic enterocolitis. In recent years, the diversity of the genus Cronobacter has been well described, and various detection and typing methods have been developed. The commonly used methods include biotyping, pulsed field gel electrophoresis typing and DNA sequence-based genotyping such as single locus sequencing, O-serotyping, multilocus sequence typing, single nucleotide polymorphism typing and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)-cas array profiling. The 7 species of Cronobacter vary in virulence and outer membrane proteins and vesicles play a significant role in cellular pathological alterations caused by infection with Cronobacter. Sialic acid may be useful in clinical practice. To date, no consistent conclusions have been drawn regarding the virulence mechanism of Cronobacter. An array of virulence factors have been revealed by gene sequencing, but they still need further validation. The improved typing methods not only are essential for the development of Cronobacter spp. taxonomy, but also lay the foundation for exploring the virulence mechanism of Cronobacter spp.