Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Department of Pathology and The Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1070, USA.
Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2010 Mar;8(3):325-38. doi: 10.1586/eri.10.4.
Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei are the causative agents of melioidosis and glanders, respectively. Both Gram-negative pathogens are endemic in many parts of the world. Although natural acquisition of these pathogens is rare in the majority of countries, these bacteria have recently gained much interest because of their potential as bioterrorism agents. In modern times, their potential destructive impact on public health has escalated owing to the ability of these pathogens to cause opportunistic infections in diabetic and perhaps otherwise immunocompromised people, two growing populations worldwide. For both pathogens, severe infection in humans carries a high mortality rate, both species are recalcitrant to antibiotic therapy - B. pseudomallei more so than B. mallei - and no licensed vaccine exists for either prophylactic or therapeutic use. The potential malicious use of these organisms has accelerated the investigation of new ways to prevent and to treat the diseases. The availability of several B. pseudomallei and B. mallei genome sequences has greatly facilitated target identification and development of new therapeutics. This review provides a compilation of literature covering studies in antimelioidosis and antiglanders antimicrobial drug discovery, with a particular focus on potential novel therapeutic approaches to combat these diseases.
类鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌和鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌分别是类鼻疽和鼻疽的病原体。这两种革兰氏阴性病原体在世界上许多地区都有地方性流行。尽管在大多数国家，这些病原体的自然感染很少见，但由于它们可能被用作生物恐怖主义制剂，这些细菌最近引起了广泛关注。在现代，由于这些病原体能够在糖尿病患者和可能免疫功能低下的人中引起机会性感染，而糖尿病患者和可能免疫功能低下的人群在全球范围内不断增加，这些病原体对公众健康的潜在破坏性影响加剧了。对于这两种病原体，人类的严重感染都有很高的死亡率，这两种病原体对抗生素治疗都有耐药性——类鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌比鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌更耐药——而且都没有针对预防或治疗用途的许可疫苗。这些生物体的恶意使用加速了对预防和治疗这些疾病的新方法的研究。几个类鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌和鼻疽伯克霍尔德菌基因组序列的可用性极大地促进了靶标鉴定和新疗法的开发。这篇综述提供了一份涵盖抗类鼻疽和抗鼻疽抗菌药物发现研究的文献汇编，特别关注了对抗这些疾病的潜在新治疗方法。
