Chronic "Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis" infection

Abstract

"Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis" infects felids. The pathogenesis of "Candidatus M. turicensis" chronic infection is poorly understood. The goals of the present study were to (1) induce reactivation of the infection in chronic carrier cats by attempted immunosuppression, (2) identify potential tissue sequestration using real-time TaqMan® PCR and (3) monitor the humoral immune response by DnaK enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Ten specified pathogen-free cats that had ostensibly recovered from experimental "Candidatus M. turicensis" infection were used: five cats (group 1) received high dose methylprednisolone (attempted immunosuppression), while five cats served as untreated controls (group 2). Besides weekly blood samples, tissue samples were collected from bone marrow, kidney, liver and salivary glands at selected time points. The cats in group 1 had significantly lower lymphocyte counts and higher blood glucose levels after methylprednisolone administration than the controls. After methylprednisolone administration one blood and three tissue samples from cats in group 1 tested PCR-positive; before the administration, only one sample was positive. All other samples tested PCR-negative. All cats stayed seropositive; the antibody levels of the cats in group 1 showed a significant transient decrease after methylprednisolone administration. This is the first study to report the presence of "Candidatus M. turicensis" in tissues of chronically infected cats and the persistence of anti-feline hemoplasma antibodies in the absence of detectable bacteremia. Methylprednisolone administration did not lead to a significant reactivation of the infection. Our results enhance the knowledge of "Candidatus M. turicensis" infection pathogenesis and are clinically relevant to the prognosis of hemoplasma-infected cats.

Quantification of the humoral immune response and hemoplasma blood and tissue loads in cats coinfected with ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ and feline leukemia virus

“…This idea would also be supported by the fact that all of the tissues analyzed from the CMhm mono-infected cat HM3 sacrificed at day 22 PI were PCR-positive [8]. In addition, we made the same observation for CMt-infected cats, in which the CMt tissue loads appeared to be inversely associated with the elapsed time since infection [37].…”

No benefit of therapeutic vaccination in clinically healthy cats persistently infected with feline leukemia virus

“…For the white blood cell differential, microscopic blood smear evaluation was 118 performed, as described [14]. 119…”

Hypertrophic osteopathy – a case report about a horse with pulmonary hemangioma and opportunistic haemotrophic mycoplasma infection

“…Eine vollständige Erregerelimination gelingt jedoch häufig nicht (Messick 2004). Eine antibiotische Therapie kann zwar die Bakteriämie vermindern, ein möglicher pathogenetischer Aspekt ist jedoch die Sequestration des Erregers im Gewebe (Novacco et al 2011 (Li et al 2007), die IL-1- (Solomon et al 2000) und IL-2-Ausschüttung (Lee et al 2004) und scheint insgesamt Gefäßwand-stabilisierende Effekte auszuüben (Hoyt et al 2006). Dem entsprechend wirkt es unmittelbar antagonistisch zu den Faktoren, welche die hypertrophe Osteopathie auslösen.…”