Identification of the virulence determinants of the neonatal meningitic bacterium Cronobacter sakazakii
type: CreativeWork
description: The Cronobacter genus is a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, comprising of seven species C. sakazakii, C. malonaticus, C. turicensis, C. dublinensis, C. muytjensii, C. universalis, and C. condimenti. Cronobacter is gaining importance as a pathogen due to the severity of the infection caused such as septicaemia, necrotizing entercolitis and severe infantile meningitis, and the numerous outbreaks reported. Clinical cases are associated with the three species C. malonaticus, C. turicensis and, in particular, with C. sakazakii multilocus sequence type 4. The understanding of its pathogenicity is still not fully understood despite the clinical evidence, resulting in the concern the FAO-WHO. Therefore, this study aimed to apply the Multiple Locus Sequence Typing scheme (MLST) to three collections of clinical strains which had not been previously profiled by MLST. These were from USA (2011), Israel (2000), and the Czech Republic (2007-2012). The strains from the latter two collections had only been identified as E. sakazakii, at that point. Among the Israeli strain collection, isolates from infants ranging from 2 to 36 weeks old, 7/9 strains were identified as belonging to the ST4 clonal complex. Similarly, 10/15 of the C.sakazakii strains isolated from US infant cases were found to belong to the ST4 clonal complex. Whereas 11 strains of the Czech isolates were from various age groups and were identified as C.malonaticus especially ST7, which is also the most clinically predominant ST of that species among non-infant infections and 6 strains were found to belong ST4. This research reported the first meningitis case by Cronobacter malonaticus (CC112) which was from an infant (age <1 month) with severe brain damage which led to their death. Of particular interest in this research was the finding that C. sakazakii and some strains of C. turicensis were unique in the Cronobacter genus in utilization of exogenous sialic acid as a carbon source which may have a role in th…
abstract: The Cronobacter genus is a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, comprising of seven species C. sakazakii, C. malonaticus, C. turicensis, C. dublinensis, C. muytjensii, C. universalis, and C. condimenti. Cronobacter is gaining importance as a pathogen due to the severity of the infection caused such as septicaemia, necrotizing entercolitis and severe infantile meningitis, and the numerous outbreaks reported. Clinical cases are associated with the three species C. malonaticus, C. turicensis and, in particular, with C. sakazakii multilocus sequence type 4. The understanding of its pathogenicity is still not fully understood despite the clinical evidence, resulting in the concern the FAO-WHO. Therefore, this study aimed to apply the Multiple Locus Sequence Typing scheme (MLST) to three collections of clinical strains which had not been previously profiled by MLST. These were from USA (2011), Israel (2000), and the Czech Republic (2007-2012). The strains from the latter two collections had only been identified as E. sakazakii, at that point. Among the Israeli strain collection, isolates from infants ranging from 2 to 36 weeks old, 7/9 strains were identified as belonging to the ST4 clonal complex. Similarly, 10/15 of the C.sakazakii strains isolated from US infant cases were found to belong to the ST4 clonal complex. Whereas 11 strains of the Czech isolates were from various age groups and were identified as C.malonaticus especially ST7, which is also the most clinically predominant ST of that species among non-infant infections and 6 strains were found to belong ST4. This research reported the first meningitis case by Cronobacter malonaticus (CC112) which was from an infant (age <1 month) with severe brain damage which led to their death. Of particular interest in this research was the finding that C. sakazakii and some strains of C. turicensis were unique in the Cronobacter genus in utilization of exogenous sialic acid as a carbon source which may have a role in th…
author: Hariri, SH
language: en
date published: 2015-07
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:30:52Z
provider: Nottingham Trent University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Nottingham Trent University