ニュース

2025年12月22日

新興人獣共通感染症菌Escherichia albertiiについての総説がアクセプトされました。

アルバーティ細菌(Escherichia albertii)は、公衆衛生上の新たなリスクとして認識されつつある新興人獣共通感染症細菌です。

この度、本菌の発見者であるM. John Albert博士と一緒にまとめた総説が、Microbiol Mol Biol Rev誌に掲載されました。

概要については "プレスリリース(←クリック)" をご覧ください。


Journal:
  Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews

Title:  Escherichia albertii: the still unfolding journey of a misdiagnosed pathogen that became a new species and a new member of the family of attaching and effacing enteric bacterial pathogens

Authors:  Shinji Yamasaki, Atsushi Hinenoya, Dieter Bulach, M. John Albert

Abstract:  SUMMARYEscherichia albertii, initially identified as Hafnia alvei, by the commercial identification biochemical strip, API 20E, was isolated from an infant with diarrhea in Bangladesh in 1989. However, this bacterium was later renamed as a novel species, E. albertii (after M. John Albert, the discoverer) because of its similarities in biochemical and genetic properties to the genus Escherichia, but different from those of any known species in the genus. E. albertii possesses many pathogenic attributes, including a key one, which is the ability to produce attaching and effacing (A/E) lesions in the intestinal mucosa mediated by genes on a 35kb pathogenicity island called the locus of enterocyte effacement. Therefore, it is a member of the family of A/E pathogens. Some of the initially reported enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), Shigella boydii O13, and cytolethal distending toxin II-producing E. coli (CTEC-II) were later confirmed as E. albertii. E. albertii caused sporadic cases of diarrhea and diarrheal outbreaks and rarely extraintestinal infections. E. albertii was also associated with the death of birds in Scotland, UK, and Alaska in the USA. Not only birds (including chickens) but also mammals, including raccoons, seem to be major reservoirs of E. albertii, suggesting that E. albertii is an emerging zoonotic pathogen. Specific detection methods and selective and differential media for E. albertii have been developed for diagnosis. Several E. albertii isolates have been sequenced, revealing key characteristics of the organism. However, there are still many gaps in knowledge that exist regarding this bacterium. In this review, we will describe what is known about some key facets of this bacterium but also directions of future research to fill the knowledge gap.

DOI:  10.1128/mmbr.00088-23