Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL, United States of America.
Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Oct 26;17(10):e0276902. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276902. eCollection 2022.
Infectious disease outbreaks are a primary contributor to coral reef decline worldwide. A particularly lethal disease, black band disease (BBD), was one of the first coral diseases reported and has since been documented on reefs worldwide. BBD is described as a microbial consortium of photosynthetic cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing and sulfide-oxidizing bacteria, and heterotrophic bacteria and archaea. The disease is visually identified by a characteristic dark band that moves across apparently healthy coral tissue leaving behind bare skeleton. Despite its virulence, attempts to effectively treat corals with BBD in the field have been limited. Here, we developed and tested several different therapeutic agents on Pseudodiploria spp. corals with signs of active BBD at Buck Island Reef National Monument in St. Croix, USVI. A variety of therapies were tested, including hydrogen peroxide-based treatments, ointment containing antibiotics, and antiviral/antimicrobial-based ointments (referred to as CoralCure). The CoralCure ointments, created by Ocean Alchemists LLC, focused on the dosing regimen and delivery mechanisms of the different active ingredients. Active ingredients included carbamide peroxide, Lugol's iodine solution, along with several proprietary essential oil and natural product blends. Additionally, the active ingredients had different release times based on treatment: CoralCure A-C had a release time of 24 hours, CoralCure D-F had a release time of 72 hours. The ointments were applied directly to the BBD lesion. Also, jute rope was saturated with a subset of these CoralCure ointment formulations to assist with adhesion. These ropes were then applied to the leading edge of the BBD lesion for one week to ensure sufficient exposure. Corals were revisited approximately three to five months after treatment application to assess disease progression rates and the presence/absence of lesions-the metrics used to quantify the efficacy of each treatment. Although most of the treatments were unsuccessful, two CoralCure rope formulations-CoralCure D rope and CoralCure E rope, eliminated the appearance of BBD in 100% of the corals treated. As such, these treatments significantly reduced the likelihood of BBD occurrence compared to the untreated controls. Additionally, lesions treated with these formulations lost significantly less tissue compared with controls. These results provide the mechanisms for an easily employable method to effectively treat a worldwide coral disease.
传染病爆发是全球珊瑚礁衰退的主要原因之一。一种特别致命的疾病，黑带病（BBD），是最早报告的珊瑚疾病之一，此后已在全球范围内的珊瑚礁上有记录。BBD 被描述为光合蓝细菌、硫酸盐还原菌和硫氧化菌以及异养细菌和古菌的微生物联合体。这种疾病在视觉上可以通过一条特征性的暗带来识别，这条暗带穿过看似健康的珊瑚组织，留下裸露的骨架。尽管 BBD 具有很强的毒性，但在野外有效治疗患有 BBD 的珊瑚的尝试一直受到限制。在这里，我们在美国维尔京群岛圣克罗伊岛的巴克岛礁国家纪念碑上对有 BBD 活动迹象的 Pseudodiploria spp. 珊瑚进行了几种不同治疗药物的开发和测试。测试了各种疗法，包括基于过氧化氢的治疗、含有抗生素的软膏和基于抗病毒/抗菌的软膏（称为 CoralCure）。Ocean Alchemists LLC 公司创建的 CoralCure 软膏专注于不同有效成分的剂量方案和输送机制。有效成分包括过氧脲、卢戈氏碘溶液，以及几种专有的精油和天然产物混合物。此外，根据治疗方法，有效成分的释放时间也不同：CoralCure A-C 的释放时间为 24 小时，CoralCure D-F 的释放时间为 72 小时。软膏直接涂抹在 BBD 病变部位。此外，黄麻绳索用这些 CoralCure 软膏制剂的一部分浸透，以帮助附着。这些绳索然后应用于 BBD 病变的前缘一周，以确保充分暴露。在治疗后大约三到五个月，对珊瑚进行回访，以评估疾病进展率和病变的存在/不存在——这些指标用于量化每种治疗方法的效果。尽管大多数治疗方法都不成功，但两种 CoralCure 绳索制剂——CoralCure D 绳索和 CoralCure E 绳索，使 100%接受治疗的珊瑚中的 BBD 外观消失。因此，与未治疗的对照组相比，这些治疗方法显著降低了 BBD 发生的可能性。此外，用这些制剂治疗的病变组织损失明显少于对照组。这些结果为一种易于实施的有效治疗全球珊瑚疾病的方法提供了机制。
