Sybertz Nicholas M, Al Jubaer Shamim, Larsen Michelle H, Alexander Kathleen A
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, 310 West Campus Drive, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY, USA.
Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2024 Dec;149:102565. doi: 10.1016/j.tube.2024.102565. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
There is an increasingly urgent need to improve our ability to accurately forecast and control zoonotic diseases in wildlife reservoirs. We are confronted, however, with the continued challenge of accurately determining host infection status across space and time. This dilemma is epitomized with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) pathogens and particularly in free-ranging wildlife, a critical global challenge for both human and animal health. In humans, transcriptional markers have been increasingly identified as a robust tool for diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection status but have rarely been utilized for diagnosing TB in free-ranging wildlife populations. Here, we report the first use of transcriptional markers to evaluate TB infection status in a free-ranging wildlife species, banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), infected with the MTBC pathogen, Mycobacterium mungi. In this study, we found that GBP5 and DUSP3 were significantly upregulated in free-ranging banded mongoose infected with M. mungi. These results provide the first step in developing an antemortem diagnostic tool for use in free-ranging wildlife species. Our results highlight the potential of transcriptional marker-based assays to advance our ability to detect and manage TB in free-ranging wildlife, especially in field studies and other scenarios when conventional diagnostics are not feasible.
提高我们准确预测和控制野生动物宿主中人畜共患病的能力变得越来越迫切。然而，我们面临着持续的挑战，即准确确定宿主在空间和时间上的感染状况。结核分枝杆菌复合群（MTBC）病原体，尤其是在自由放养的野生动物中，这种困境体现得淋漓尽致，这对人类和动物健康都是一个关键的全球挑战。在人类中，转录标志物已越来越被视为诊断结核分枝杆菌（MTB）感染状况的有力工具，但很少用于诊断自由放养野生动物种群中的结核病。在此，我们报告首次使用转录标志物来评估感染MTBC病原体芒氏分枝杆菌的自由放养野生动物物种——带状猫鼬（Mungos mungo）的结核病感染状况。在本研究中，我们发现GBP5和DUSP3在感染芒氏分枝杆菌的自由放养带状猫鼬中显著上调。这些结果为开发用于自由放养野生动物物种的生前诊断工具迈出了第一步。我们的结果凸显了基于转录标志物的检测方法在提高我们检测和管理自由放养野生动物结核病能力方面的潜力，特别是在传统诊断不可行的野外研究和其他情况下。
