Genome sequence of the Mycobacterium colombiense type strain, CECT 3035

Mycobacterium colombiense Pneumonia in HIV-Infected Patients: Three Case Reports and a Literature Review

Background

Mycobacterium colombiense pneumonia in HIV-infected patients is relatively unusual but is associated with a high mortality rate, as well as high rates of misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis. Clinical metagenome next-generation sequencing (mNGS) may have potential for its accurate and timely diagnosis.

Case Presentation

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of three HIV-infected patients who presented with M. colombiense pneumonia in Zhejiang Province between January 2019 and December 2020. No specific clinical presentations or radiological manifestations were found in any of the patients. The detection of M. colombiense is 28-55 days earlier using mNGS on bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) compared to traditional culture methods. A combined treatment of rifabutin, clarithromycin, or azithromycin, and ethambutol did not provide timely relief of symptoms in these three patients. In the early stage of treatment, moxifloxacin and linezolid were used for several weeks. The average course of treatment for all three patients was close to 17 months.

Conclusion

We recommend early BALF mNGS for fast and accurate diagnosis of M. colombiense pneumonia in HIV-infected patients with low CD4 counts and long duration of symptoms. Further, moxifloxacin and linezolid may be beneficial in the early stage of treatment.

In vitro assessment of 17 antimicrobial agents against clinical Mycobacterium avium complex isolates

Background

Recently, Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections have been increasing, especially in immunocompromised and older adults. The rapid increase has triggered a global health concern due to limited therapeutic strategies and adverse effects caused by long-term medication. To provide more evidence for the treatment of MAC, we studied the in vitro inhibitory activities of 17 antimicrobial agents against clinical MAC isolates.

Results

A total of 111 clinical MAC isolates were enrolled in the study and they were identified as M. intracellulare, M. avium, M. marseillense, M. colombiense, M. yongonense, and two isolates could not be identified at the species level. MAC strains had relatively low (0–21.6%) resistance to clarithromycin, amikacin, bedaquiline, rifabutin, streptomycin, and clofazimine, and the resistant rates to isoniazid, rifampin, linezolid, doxycycline, and ethionamide were very high (72.1–100%). In addition, M. avium had a significantly higher resistance rate than that of M. intracellulare for ethambutol (92.3% vs 40.7%, P < 0.001), amikacin (15.4% vs 1.2%, P = 0.049), and cycloserine (69.2% vs 25.9%, P = 0.004).

Conclusions

Our results supported the current usage of macrolides, rifabutin, and aminoglycosides in the regimens for MAC infection, and also demonstrated the low resistance rate against new drugs, such as clofazimine, tedizolid, and bedaquiline, suggesting the possible implementation of these drugs in MAC treatment.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-022-02582-2.

In silico analysis of promoter regions to identify regulatory elements in TetR family transcriptional regulatory genes of Mycobacterium colombiense CECT 3035

Background

Mycobacterium colombiense is an acid-fast, non-motile, rod-shaped mycobacterium confirmed to cause respiratory disease and disseminated infection in immune-compromised patients, and lymphadenopathy in immune-competent children. It has virulence mechanisms that allow them to adapt, survive, replicate, and produce diseases in the host. To tackle the diseases caused by M. colombiense, understanding of the regulation mechanisms of its genes is important. This paper, therefore, analyzes transcription start sites, promoter regions, motifs, transcription factors, and CpG islands in TetR family transcriptional regulatory (TFTR) genes of M. colombiense CECT 3035 using neural network promoter prediction, MEME, TOMTOM algorithms, and evolutionary analysis with the help of MEGA-X.

Results

The analysis of 22 protein coding TFTR genes of M. colombiense CECT 3035 showed that 86.36% and 13.64% of the gene sequences had one and two TSSs, respectively. Using MEME, we identified five motifs (MTF1, MTF2, MTF3, MTF4, and MTF5) and MTF1 was revealed as the common promoter motif for 100% TFTR genes of M. colombiense CECT 3035 which may serve as binding site for transcription factors that shared a minimum homology of 95.45%. MTF1 was compared to the registered prokaryotic motifs and found to match with 15 of them. MTF1 serves as the binding site mainly for AraC, LexA, and Bacterial histone-like protein families. Other protein families such as MATP, RR, σ-70 factor, TetR, LytTR, LuxR, and NAP also appear to be the binding candidates for MTF1. These families are known to have functions in virulence mechanisms, metabolism, quorum sensing, cell division, and antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, it was found that TFTR genes of M. colombiense CECT 3035 have many CpG islands with several fragments in their CpG islands. Molecular evolutionary genetic analysis showed close relationship among the genes.

Conclusion

We believe these findings will provide a better understanding of the regulation of TFTR genes in M. colombiense CECT 3035 involved in vital processes such as cell division, pathogenesis, and drug resistance and are likely to provide insights for drug development important to tackle the diseases caused by this mycobacterium. We believe this is the first report of in silico analyses of the transcriptional regulation of M. colombiense TFTR genes.

Sliding Motility, Biofilm Formation, and Glycopeptidolipid Production in Mycobacterium colombiense Strains

Mycobacterium colombiense is a novel member of the Mycobacterium avium complex, which produces respiratory and disseminated infections in immunosuppressed patients. Currently, the morphological and genetic bases underlying the phenotypic features of M. colombiense strains remain unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that M. colombiense strains displaying smooth morphology show increased biofilm formation on hydrophobic surfaces and sliding on motility plates. Thin-layer chromatography experiments showed that M. colombiense strains displaying smooth colonies produce large amounts of glycolipids with a chromatographic behaviour similar to that of the glycopeptidolipids (GPLs) of M. avium. Conversely, we observed a natural rough variant of M. colombiense (57B strain) lacking pigmentation and exhibiting impaired sliding, biofilm formation, and GPL production. Bioinformatics analyses revealed a gene cluster that is likely involved in GPL biosynthesis in M. colombiense CECT 3035. RT-qPCR experiments showed that motile culture conditions activate the transcription of genes possibly involved in key enzymatic activities of GPL biosynthesis.

Identification of potential biomarkers to distinguish Mycobacterium colombiense from other mycobacterial species

Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) consists of 9 species of slow-growing mycobacteria with differing degrees of pathogenicity, host preference and environmental distribution. Mycobacterium colombiense is a novel member of MAC that is responsible for disseminated infections in HIV-infected patients in Colombia and lymphadenopathy cases in Europe. At present, methods to easily differentiate novel members of MAC are lacking. In this study, we identified possible biomarkers that are potentially useful for the detection of M. colombiense by PCR or chromatography. The Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used to amplify genomic fragments of M. colombiense CECT 3035 that were subsequently used in the development of a direct colony-specific PCR assay using specific primers. The designed primers amplified a 634-bp fragment of DNA from M. colombiense, which included a 450-bp genomic region that encodes a hypothetical protein of 149 amino acids that is exclusive to M. colombiense. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that this hypothetical protein had no signal peptide, active sites or functional domains to aid its identification or classification. In addition, using thin-layer chromatography, we identified a different profile of mycolates for M. colombiense strains. The test developed in this study has potential applications in the routine identification of M. colombiense and in molecular assays designed for the surveillance of MAC strains.

Complete genome sequence of Mycobacterium intracellulare strain ATCC 13950(T)

Here we report the first complete genome sequence of Mycobacterium intracellulare ATCC 13950(T), a Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) strain. This genome sequence will serve as a valuable reference for understanding the epidemiologic, biological, and pathogenic aspects of the disparity between MAC members.