Higher prevalence of urogenital mycoplasmas in human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients as compared to patients with other sexually transmitted diseases

Abstract

We determined the prevalence of three emergent urogenital mycoplasma species (M. fermentans, M. penetrans, and M. genitalium) in comparison to the most common species (M. hominis and U. urealyticum). M. genitalium is probably the third most frequent agent of nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) in men. It has been suggested that M. fermentans and M. penetrans play a role in the development of AIDS. We analysed the urine and the urethral swab samples from 106 HIV‐1 infected individuals (HIV group) and 110 HIV‐negative patients with NGU (STD group) by using PCR and culture methods. M. genitalium was detected in 0.9% of the urine and in 1.9% of the urethral samples from the HIV group, compared to 9.1% found only in urethral swab samples from the STD group. M. fermentans was detected in 5.7% urethral swabs from the HIV group and in 0.9% from the STD group. M. penetrans was detected in 6.6% urine samples from the HIV group. M. hominis and U. urealyticum showed infection rates of 7.5 and 18.9% in the HIV group, and 0.9 and 13.6% in the STD group. Overall there was a higher prevalence of mycoplasmas in the HIV group than in the STD group, but the significance of these results remains unclear. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 14:246–253, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium among HIV-infected men in São Paulo city detected by realtime polymerase chain reaction

“…M. genitalium, one of the 14 species of Mycoplasma that infect humans, was first isolated from two men with nongonococcal urethritis. 5,6 M. genitalium is a human pathogen that has been isolated from both the urogenital and the respiratory tracts. 2 In a clinical study, approximately 40% of infants born to infected mothers became infected with these bacteria, and colonization of the respiratory tract of infants was associated with pneumonia and meningitis.…”

“…7 More recently, this bacterium has been described among human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1)-infected patients. 2,5,6 In fact, non-ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) play an important role in HIV transmission and the existence of STD Control Programmes may reduce the HIV incidence. 8 Acute urethritis is an STD commonly diagnosed in men worldwide 8,9 and M. genitalium has been detected in 11-20% of men with urethritis; however, in patients without urethritis, the prevalence varied from 0% to 8.5% among HIV-1-seronegative subjects.…”

Antigenic complementarity among AIDS-associated infectious agents and molecular mimicry of lymphocyte proteins as inducers of lymphocytotoxic antibodies and circulating immune complexes

“…Cofactors that have been demonstrated to alter the probability of acquisition of HIV and/or the rate at which AIDS subsequently develops include: cytomegalovirus (CMV) (Emery et al, 1999;Kovacs et al, 1999;Robain et al, 2001;Sabin et al, 1995;Sever et al, 1995;Webster, 1991), heptatitis viruses B and C (HBV and HCV) (Antipa et al, 1995;Twu et al, 1993), herpes viruses 2, 6, and 8 (HSV1, HSV2, HHV6, HHV8) (Buimovici-Klein et al, 1988;Perez et al, 1998;Sever et al, 1995;Sonnabend, 1989), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) (Goletti et al, 1996;Maserati et al, 1999;Whalen et al, 1995), a variety of mycoplasmas, including M. fermentans, M. hominis, M. pirum, M. penetrans, and M. genitalium (Al-Harthi et al, 1999;Ballard et al, 2002;Cordova et al, 2000;De Cordova et al, 1999;Faye-Kette et al, 2000;Grau et al, 1998;Hakkarainen et al, 1992;Olinger et al, 1999;Perez et al, 1998), and Staphylococcus aureus, which is a particularly frequent infection among those who acquire HIV via intravenous drug use (Brinchmann et al, 1992;Goujard et al, 1994).…”

Quantitative detection and phylogeny-based identification of mycoplasmas and ureaplasmas from human immunodeficiency virus type 1-positive patients

“…Three bacterial species, M. genitalium, M. Mycoplasmas and ureaplasmas were detected in the urine of HIV-1-infected patients with the following order of prevalence: U. urealyticum > M. hominis > M. penetrans > However, the report concludes that the relation of HIV infection and M. fermentans is unclear. 11 In the search for other infectious agents that might play a key role in the complex pathogenesis of AIDS, recent attention has focused on several species of mycoplasmas. 26,27 The presence of systemic mycoplasma infection in many patients with AIDS may be highly significant.…”

“…8 Furthermore, Mycoplasma fermentans, Mycoplasma penetrans, M. genitalium, Mycoplasma salivarium, Mycoplasma orale, Mycoplasma pirum, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and U. urealyticum systemically infect human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS patients. [9][10][11][12][13] Scientists and clinicians accept HIV-1 as the primary etiologic agent causing AIDS. [14][15][16] However, it is still not fully understood how HIV-1 actually causes the complex disease described as AIDS.…”