| Title | The Enterobacterial Common Antigen-Like Gene Cluster of Haemophilus ducreyi Contributes to Virulence in Humans. | | Author(s) | Banks KE, Fortney KR, Baker B, Billings SD, Katz BP, Munson Jr RS, Spinola SM | | Institution | Departments of 1Medicine, 2Microbiology and Immunology, and 3Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and 4Center for Immunobiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis; 5The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and 6Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University, Columbus. | | Source | J Infect Dis 2008 Apr 18. | | Abstract | Haemophilus ducreyi 35000HP contains a cluster of homologues of genes required for the synthesis of enterobacterial common antigen (ECA), suggesting that H. ducreyi may express a putative ECA-like glycoconjugate. WecA initiates the synthesis of ECA by transferring N-acetylglucosamine to undecaprenyl-P, to form lipid I. A wecA mutant (35000HPwecA) was constructed, and 5 volunteers were inoculated at 3 sites with fixed doses of 35000HP on one arm and at 3 sites with varying doses of 35000HPwecA on the other arm. 35000HPwecA caused pustules to form at 3 sites inoculated with a dose 2.5-fold higher than that of 35000HP. However, at sites inoculated with similar doses of 35000HP and 35000HPwecA, pustules developed at 46.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.3%-70.0%) of 15 parent-strain sites and at 8.3% (95% CI, 0.01%-23.6%) of 12 mutant-strain sites ([Formula: see text]). Thus, the expression of wecA contributes to the ability of H. ducreyi to cause pustules in humans. | | Language | ENG | | Pub Type(s) | JOURNAL ARTICLE
| | PubMed ID | 18422457 |
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