IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v417y2002i6889d10.1038_nature00778.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Host-induced epidemic spread of the cholera bacterium

Author

Listed:
  • D. Scott Merrell

    (Tufts University School of Medicine
    Stanford School of Medicine)

  • Susan M. Butler

    (Tufts University School of Medicine)

  • Firdausi Qadri

    (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research)

  • Nadia A. Dolganov

    (Stanford Medical School, Beckman Center, Room 241)

  • Ahsfaqul Alam

    (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research)

  • Mitchell B. Cohen

    (Children's Hospital Medical Center)

  • Stephen B. Calderwood

    (Massachusetts General Hospital
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Gary K. Schoolnik

    (Stanford Medical School, Beckman Center, Room 241)

  • Andrew Camilli

    (Tufts University School of Medicine)

Abstract

The factors that enhance the transmission of pathogens during epidemic spread are ill defined. Water-borne spread of the diarrhoeal disease cholera occurs rapidly in nature, whereas infection of human volunteers with bacteria grown in vitro is difficult in the absence of stomach acid buffering1. It is unclear, however, whether stomach acidity is a principal factor contributing to epidemic spread2. Here we report that characterization of Vibrio cholerae from human stools supports a model whereby human colonization creates a hyperinfectious bacterial state that is maintained after dissemination and that may contribute to epidemic spread of cholera. Transcriptional profiling of V. cholerae from stool samples revealed a unique physiological and behavioural state characterized by high expression levels of genes required for nutrient acquisition and motility, and low expression levels of genes required for bacterial chemotaxis.

Suggested Citation

  • D. Scott Merrell & Susan M. Butler & Firdausi Qadri & Nadia A. Dolganov & Ahsfaqul Alam & Mitchell B. Cohen & Stephen B. Calderwood & Gary K. Schoolnik & Andrew Camilli, 2002. "Host-induced epidemic spread of the cholera bacterium," Nature, Nature, vol. 417(6889), pages 642-645, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6889:d:10.1038_nature00778
    DOI: 10.1038/nature00778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature00778
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature00778?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Medda, Rakesh & Tiwari, Pankaj Kumar & Pal, Samares, 2024. "Impacts of planktonic components on the dynamics of cholera epidemic: Implications from a mathematical model," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 505-526.
    2. Liao, Shu & Wang, Jin, 2012. "Global stability analysis of epidemiological models based on Volterra–Lyapunov stable matrices," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 966-977.
    3. Alexandre Maciel-Guerra & Kubra Babaarslan & Michelle Baker & Aura Rahman & Maqsud Hossain & Abdus Sadique & Jahidul Alam & Salim Uzzaman & Mohammad Ferdous Rahman Sarker & Nasrin Sultana & Ashraful I, 2024. "Core and accessory genomic traits of Vibrio cholerae O1 drive lineage transmission and disease severity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:417:y:2002:i:6889:d:10.1038_nature00778. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.