10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Downstream Effects of Ameobic Co-culture on B. pseudomallei
SARA RUIZ, Katie Beck, Aysegul Nalca, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
Abstract Number: 1723 Working Group: Infectious Bioaerosol
Abstract Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiological agent responsible for melioidosis, is able to persist within water and soil of endemic regions. Human infection occurs through direct exposure to the contaminated environment via oral or respiratory routes. The mechanism through which B. pseudomallei persists within the environment is a critical gap in the field’s knowledge. Free living amoeba have been shown to provide a protective niche for other environmental bacteria. The interaction between Acanthamoeba and Legionella pneumophila allows for a protected replication site, and has been observed to create a more successful bacterial pathogen, increasing its virulence through an unknown mechanism. B. pseudomallei is known to survive within the free living amoeba, Acanthamoeba astronyxis. The downstream effects of amoebic passage on B. pseudomallei were investigated. B. pseudomallei was found to replicate more efficiently upon co-culture with amoeba than grown in media alone. The resulting bacteria from the amoeba co-culture infected mammalian cells at a statistically significant higher rate. Aerodynamic properties for both passaged and non-passaged bacterial populations are being assessed. Environmental sampling is dependent upon understanding the niche in which the bacteria lives. The effects of co-culturing amoeba and B. pseudomallei potentially has a direct relationship to predicting outbreaks and identifying populations most at risk for infection. In addition, novel medical countermeasure targets could be identified through the transcriptomic analysis.