Browsing by Author "Fobil, Julius N"
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Publication Molecular Epidemiology and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Vibrio cholerae Associated with a Large Cholera Outbreak in Ghana in 2014(Public Library of Science (PLOS), 2016-05-27) Eibach, Daniel; Herrera-León, Silvia; Gil, Horacio; Hogan, Benedikt; Ehlkes, Lutz; Adjabeng, Michael; Kreuels, Benno; Nagel, Michael; Opare, David; Fobil, Julius N; May, Jürgen; German Center for Infection Research (Alemania)BACKGROUND: Ghana is affected by regular cholera epidemics and an annual average of 3,066 cases since 2000. In 2014, Ghana experienced one of its largest cholera outbreaks within a decade with more than 20,000 notified infections. In order to attribute this rise in cases to a newly emerging strain or to multiple simultaneous outbreaks involving multi-clonal strains, outbreak isolates were characterized, subtyped and compared to previous epidemics in 2011 and 2012. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Serotypes, biotypes, antibiotic susceptibilities were determined for 92 Vibrio cholerae isolates collected in 2011, 2012 and 2014 from Southern Ghana. For a subgroup of 45 isolates pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing and multilocus-variable tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) were performed. Eighty-nine isolates (97%) were identified as ctxB (classical type) positive V. cholerae O1 biotype El Tor and three (3%) isolates were cholera toxin negative non-O1/non-O139 V. cholerae. Among the selected isolates only sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim resistance was detectable in 2011, while 95% of all 2014 isolates showed resistance towards sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, ampicillin and reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. MLVA achieved the highest subtype discrimination, revealing 22 genotypes with one major outbreak cluster in each of the three outbreak years. Apart from those clusters genetically distant genotypes circulate during each annual epidemic. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This analysis suggests different endemic reservoirs of V. cholerae in Ghana with distinct annual outbreak clusters accompanied by the occurrence of genetically distant genotypes. Preventive measures for cholera transmission should focus on aquatic reservoirs. Rapidly emerging multidrug resistance must be monitored closely.Publication Plasmodium falciparum immunodominant IgG epitopes in subclinical malaria.(Nature Publishing Group, 2020-06-10) Azcárate, Isabel G; Marín-García, Patricia; Abad, Paloma; Pérez-Benavente, Susana; Paz-Artal, Estela; Reche, Pedro A; Fobil, Julius N; Diez, Amalia; Puyet, Antonio; Bautista, José M; Rubio Muñoz, Jose Miguel; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España); Complutense University of Madrid (España)Incomplete non-sterile immunity to malaria is attained in endemic regions after recurrent infections by a large percentage of the adult population, who carry the malaria parasite asymptomatically. Although blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum rapidly elicits IgG responses, the target antigens of partially protective and non-protective IgG antibodies as well as the basis for the acquisition of these antibodies remain largely unknown. We performed IgG-immunomics to screen for P. falciparum antigens and to identify epitopes associated with exposure and clinical disease. Sera from malaria cases identified five prevalent antigens recognized by all analyzed patients' IgGs. Epitope mapping of them, using adult and children sera samples from an endemic malaria region in Ghana segregated into patients with positive or negative subclinical detection of P. falciparum, revealed binding specificity for two 20-mer immunodominant antigenic regions within the START-related lipid transfer protein and the protein disulfide isomerase PDI8. These 20-mer epitopes challenged with sera samples from children under 5 years old displayed specific IgG binding in those with detectable parasitemia, even at subclinical level. These results suggest that humoral response against START and PDI8 antigens may be triggered at submicroscopic parasitemia levels in children and may eventually be used to differentially diagnose subclinical malaria in children.Publication Prediction of Antibiotic Susceptibility Profiles of Vibrio cholerae Isolates From Whole Genome Illumina and Nanopore Sequencing Data: CholerAegon(Frontiers Media, 2022-06) Fuesslin, Valeria; Krautwurst, Sebastian; Srivastava, Akash; Winter, Doris; Liedigk, Britta; Thye, Thorsten; Herrera-León, Silvia; Wohl, Shirlee; May, Jürgen; Fobil, Julius N; Eibach, Daniel; Marz, Manja; Schuldt, Kathrin; Carl Zeiss Foundation; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Alemania)During the last decades, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a global public health concern. Nowadays multi-drug resistance is commonly observed in strains of Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of cholera. In order to limit the spread of pathogenic drug-resistant bacteria and to maintain treatment options the analysis of clinical samples and their AMR profiles are essential. Particularly, in low-resource settings a timely analysis of AMR profiles is often impaired due to lengthy culturing procedures for antibiotic susceptibility testing or lack of laboratory capacity. In this study, we explore the applicability of whole genome sequencing for the prediction of AMR profiles of V. cholerae. We developed the pipeline CholerAegon for the in silico prediction of AMR profiles of 82 V. cholerae genomes assembled from long and short sequencing reads. By correlating the predicted profiles with results from phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing we show that the prediction can replace in vitro susceptibility testing for five of seven antibiotics. Because of the relatively low costs, possibility for real-time data analyses, and portability, the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION sequencing platform-especially in light of an upcoming less error-prone technology for the platform-appears to be well suited for pathogen genomic analyses such as the one described here. Together with CholerAegon, it can leverage pathogen genomics to improve disease surveillance and to control further spread of antimicrobial resistance.