Publications related to Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southeastern United States

Back-to-Africa introductions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the main cause of tuberculosis in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In settings with high tuberculosis (TB) endemicity, distinct genotypes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) often differ in prevalence. However, the factors leading to these differences remain poorly understood. Here we studied the MTBC populat ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

Development and validation of a multiplex real-time qPCR assay using GMP-grade reagents for leprosy diagnosis

Stewart Cole, Charlotte Avanzi, Thyago Leal Calvo

Author summaryLeprosy is a chronic dermato-neurological disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an obligate intracellular bacterium. Diagnosis of leprosy often relies on skin examinations for clinical signs, bacilli staining from skin smears and invasive s ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2022

A new paradigm for leprosy diagnosis based on host gene expression

Stewart Cole, Andrej Benjak, Charlotte Avanzi, Philippe Busso, Thyago Leal Calvo

Author summary ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2021

Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes

Stewart Cole, Charlotte Avanzi, Philippe Busso

Background Hansen's disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins ...

BMC2021

Genomic Characterization of Mycobacterium lepraeto Explore Transmission Patterns Identifies New Subtype in Bangladesh

Stewart Cole, Andrej Benjak, Charlotte Avanzi

Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, is an unculturable bacterium with a considerably reduced genome (3.27 Mb) compared to homologues mycobacteria from the same ancestry. In 2001, the genome ofM. lepraewas first described and subsequently ...

Frontiers Media SA2020

Population Genomics of Mycobacterium leprae Reveals a New Genotype in Madagascar and the Comoros

Stewart Cole, Stefanie Boy-Röttger, Andrej Benjak, Charlotte Avanzi, Philippe Busso, Pushpendra Singh, Thyago Leal Calvo

Human settlement of Madagascar traces back to the beginning of the first millennium with the arrival of Austronesians from Southeast Asia, followed by migrations from Africa and the Middle East. Remains of these different cultural, genetic, and linguistic ...

Frontiers Media SA2020

Polarly Localized EccE(1) Is Required for ESX-1 Function and Stabilization of ESX-1 Membrane Proteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Stewart Cole, Claudia Sala, Ming Zhang, Jérémie Piton, Paloma Julia Soler Arnedo

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a slow-growing intracellular bacterium with the ability to induce host cell death and persist indefinitely in the human body. This pathogen uses the specialized ESX-1 secretion system to secrete virulence factors and potent im ...

American Society for Microbiology2020

British Red Squirrels Remain the Only Known Wild Rodent Host for Leprosy Bacilli

Stewart Cole, Charlotte Avanzi, Philippe Busso

Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in the British Isles are the most recently discovered animal reservoir for the leprosy bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Initial data suggest that prevalence of leprosy infection is vari ...

2019

Innovative Tools and in vivo Methods for Tuberculosis Drug Discovery and Development

Raphael Christopher Sommer

Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death due to a single infectious agent, claiming 1.6 million human lives and causing >10 million new cases in 2017 alone, mostly in low-income regions. The intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculos ...

EPFL2019

Genomics: a Swiss army knife to fight leprosy

Charlotte Avanzi

Leprosy, a highly disabling and stigmatizing infectious disease, is caused by Mycobacterium leprae and the newly discovered agent, Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Though treatable with antibiotics, leprosy has still not been eradicated, and around 200,000 new ...

EPFL2018