Rapid Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas

239 Pages·1993·6.922 MB·English

by  Itzhak Kahane, Amiram Adoni (auth.)

Rapid Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas
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Rapid Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas
Edited by
Itzhak Kahane
The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Jerusalem, Israel
and
Amiram Adoni
Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus
Jerusalem, Israel
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Librar y of Congress Catalog1ng-1n-Pub1icatlo n Dat a
Rapid diagnosi s of mycoplasmas / edite d by Itzha k Kahane and Ami ram
Adonl.
p. cm . — (FEMS symposium ; no. 62)
"Proceedings o f a symposium hel d under th e auspices of the
Federation of European Microbiologica l Societies , hel d August 11-23 ,
1991, 1 n Jerusalem, Israel"—T.p . verso .
Includes bibliographica l reference s and Index .
ISBN 978-1-4613-6056-8 ISBN 978-1-4615-2478-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-2478-6
1. Mycoplasma diseases—Diagnosis—Congresses . I . Kahane,
Itzhak. II . Adonl, Amiram. III . Series.
QR201.M97R7 3199 3
616'.014--dc2 0 93-4167 5
CIP
Proceedings of a symposium held under the auspices of the Federation of European
Microbiological Societies, August 11-23, 1991, in Jerusalem, Israel
ISBN 978-1-4613-6056-8
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1993
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission from the Publisher
PREFACE
This compendium is the result of the FEMS Workshop on "Rapid
Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas" which I organized and which took place in
Jerusalem, Israel, August 11-23, 1991.
The first week's sessions were held at a resort on the outskirts of
Jerusalem and consisted of lectures and discussions. This part was modelled
along the lines of the Gordon Conference in the USA, i.e., in an intimate atmo
sphere in which everyone could mix and exchange ideas, and was very benefi
cial. About 100 scientists from around the world attended the first week. Dur
ing the first week, the biology, molecular biology and pathophysiology of myco
plasmas, as well as all the main diagnostic methods were covered, including
both conventional and the newer technologies. The session on mycoplasmas
in the human urogenital tracts was held in conjunction with the Israel Society
for the Study and Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Disease.
The second week was a laboratory session and was held at the Hebrew
University-Hadassah Medical School campus in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. All ex
periments were conducted by eminent specialists in their field. The lab session
had 36 participants from 19 countries who used the most modern techniques
for the diagnosis of mycoplasmas in medicine, veterinary medicine and agri
culture. The efficacy of several commercial kits were also tested at this time.
I want to again thank everyone who helped and supported this work
shop, as well as the authors of the various chapters.
Itzhak Kahane
Jerusalem
v
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
I. Kahane
Biology of Mollicutes 3
J .G. Tully
Molecular Biology of Spiroplasmas:1991 15
J. M. Bove
-'
Mycoplasmas in the Human Urogenital Tract 31
D. Taylor-Robinson
Mycoplasma Infections of Man: Respiratory and
Male Genital Tract Diseases 39
H. Brunner
Mycoplasmas as Immunomodulators 57
Y. Naot
Mycoplasmas - Animal Pathogens 69
R. F. Ross
Detection of Adherence of Ureaplasma urealyticum to
Bovine Mucosa Fallopian Tube Cells in Culture 111
A. Saada, E. Rahamin, I. Kahane and Y. Beyth
Serological Identification of Mollicutes 121
J. G. Tully
Rapid Detection of Phloem-Restricted Mollicutes 131
M. Garnier, L. Zreik, C. Saillard and J. M. Bove
Detection and Identification of Mycoplasmas With
Diagnostic DNA Probes Complementary to Ribosomal RNA 139
K.-E. Johansson
Mycoplasmas in Cell Culture 155
M. F. Barile and S. Rottem
vii
Development of a Capture-ELISA for the Specific Detection of
Mycoplasma pneumoniae in Patients' Material 195
B. Gerstenecker and E. Jacobs
Identification of Mollicutes by Immunoblotting 209
S. A. Horowitz
Detection of Human Mycoplasmas by In Vitro DNA Amplification 219
B. de Barbeyrac, C. Bernet, R. Teyssou, F. Poutiers, and C. Beb~ar
Sensitive Detection of Mycoplasmas in Cell Cultures by Using
Two-Step Polymerase Chain Reaction 227
R. Harasawa, T. Uemori, K Asada and I. Kato
Rapid Detection of Mycoplasmas: New Goals for the Future 233
I. Kahane and A. Adoni
Index 235
viii
INTRODUCTION
Itzhak Kahane
Department of Membrane and Ultrastructure Research
The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
POB 1172, Jerusalem 91010, Israel
The class Mollicutes, whose members are commonly known as myco
plasmas, now include more than 120 species, most of which are parasites and
many are pathogens of a vast variety of hosts. Until recently, the detection of
mycoplasmas was slow and proven only within days or even weeks. This
would not be so problematic if the mycoplasmas would cause only mild and
chronic disease. However, in recent years, data are accumulating that in sever
al instances, mycoplasmas cause diseases which are acute and may be fatal.
This was dramatically illustrated very recently when a 20-year old patient died
from Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection, as reported in the case records of
Massachusetts General Hospital published in the New England Journal of
Medicine, (Case 5, 1992). It should be noted that this pathogen is the cause of
pneumonia in about 30% of the children hospitalized with all kinds of pneu
monia in developed countries. Another mycoplasma which is documented as
causing fatal disease is Ureaplasma urealyticum which causes respiratory dis
tress syndrome and which is life threatening to infants of low birth weight
(Cassell et al., 1988; Quinn, P.A., 1988). The final example is linked to infection
with Mycoplasma jermentans, incognitus strain. This organism is highly path
ogenic and was reported to cause severe systemic disease that is potentially
fatal. In addition, it was also incriminated in setting the stage for HIV infect
ion and AIDS (Lo et al., 1989). These aspects illuminate the great need for
methods for rapid detection of mycoplasmas in order to allow the early diag
nosis of infection and prevent the severe consequences which are even more
threatening if the link of HIV activation to mycoplasma infection is true.
Needless to say, similar aspects of importance in rapid detection are in
volved in mycoplasma diseases in veterinary medicine. Here, the commer
cial aspects are an important factor as well. Finally, the need for rapid detect
ion is also of major importance in all areas where cells in culture are used,
since mycoplasmas can be considered pests of these cells. With the aforemen-
Rapid Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas, Edited by I. Kahane
and A. Adoni, Plenum Press, New York, 1993 1
tioned threats that mycoplasma may cause, there is no wonder that health
authorities demand that all products from cell cultures be from mycoplasma
free sources.
With all of this in mind, and with the approaches and methods for
rapid detection of mycoplasmas that started to imerge and that were discussed
in the workshop, I felt that it would be important for many more mycoplas
mologists to have this basic information and the detailed approaches and
methods included in this book, believing that in this way, more laboratories
around the world will have the skills and will be able to detect the mycoplas
mas and, hopefully be able to design new methods or improve the current
ones for rapid detection and fast diagnosis of mycoplasma infections.
REFERENCES
Case 5-1992: Presentation of a Case. 1992. New England J. Med. 326: 324-336
Cassell, G. H., Crouse, D. T., Canupp, K c., Waites, K. B., Rudd, P. T., Stagnos,
S. and Cutter, G. R. 1988. Association of Ureaplasma urealyticum in
fection of the lower respiratory tract with chronic lung disease and
death in very low- birth- weight infants. Lancet 2:240-244.
Lo, S.-c., Dawson, G., Wong, D. M.,Newton III, P. B., Sonoda, M. A., Engler,
W. F., Wang, R. Y.-H. Shih, J. W.-K., Alter, H. J. and Wear, D. J.1989.
Identification of Mycoplasma incognitus infection in patients with
AIDS: an immunohistochemical, in situ hybridization and ultra
structural study. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 41:601.
Quinn, P. A. 1988. Mycoplasma infection in fetus and newborn in: "Trans
placental Effects on Fetal Health" (D. G. Scarpelli and G. Migaki, Eds.)
Alan R. Liss, New York, pp. 107-151.
2
BIOLOGY OF MOLLICUTES
Joseph G. Tully
Mycoplasma Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, National Institutes of Health Frederick, MD, USA
INTRODUCTION
Mollicutes are bacteria that lack a cell wall, one of the principal cellular
and morphological structures of most prokaryotes. These wall-less organisms,
earlier called either "pleuropneumonia-like organisms" or "mycoplasmas",
are also the smallest free-living, self-replicating forms currently known in bio
logy. They share a small size and filterability with a number of viruses, which
helps explain why many mollicutes were earlier mistaken for viruses. On the
other hand, mollicutes are structurally different from viruses and are capable
of sustained growth on cell-free media of varying complexity. Within the past
twenty-five years, an enormous increase in our knowledge and understanding
of mollicutes has taken place. These microbial forms are now known to occur
in most vertebrates, in numerous insect and other arthropods, and within and
on the surfaces of many plants. While it is also obvious now that many of
these organisms can be considered part of the normal commensal flora of the
host, other mollicutes have become well established pathogens of man, ani
mals, plants, and arthropods.
The discussion to follow will focus on some recent developments af
fecting our current thinking about several specific areas in the biology of mol
licutes, rather than attempt to provide a comprehensive coverage of the topic.
For a more adequate background on the biology of mollicutes, particularly
with regard to members belonging to the various genera within the class
Mollicutes and to the unclassified mycoplasma-like organisms of plants, one
should consult a number of recent reviews (Kirkpatrick, 1991; Razin, 1991;
Tully and Whitcomb, 1991; Whitcomb and Tully, 1989) or other contributions
to this volume.
Rapid Diagnosis of Mycoplasmas, Edited by I. Kahane
and A. Adoni, Plenum Press, New York, 1993 3