Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei) is the causative agent of melioidosis, which is a disease endemic in South East Asia and northern Australia and causes a clinical spectrum ranging from pneumonia and/or cutaneous infection to disseminated disease with fulminant septicaemia. Worldwide, melioidosis has a wide variety of clinical manifestations, so it is known as the "great mimicker" and is commonly misdiagnosed. The mean incubation period is nine days (1–21 days) but symptoms can evolve more quickly (<24 hours) following inhalational and/or presumed aspiration events.
Fig. 1 Virulence and intracellular life cycle
(Phillips ED, Garcia EC.Trends Microbiol. 2024)
B. pseudomallei belongs to the Burkholderia genus, which is a group of diverse, primarily soil-dwelling, Gram-negative bacteria. It possesses large bacterial genomes (7.2 Mb), which is shared over two chromosomes and contains an extensive arsenal of virulence determinants, which enable it hardy environmental that resist temperature extremes, acidic and alkaline conditions, disinfectants and antiseptic solutions. B. pseudomallei can adhere, invade, survive and replicate within pulmonary (airway) epithelial and phagocytic cells. For most pathogenic bacteria, the critical step involves the establishment of infection predominantly via cell adhesion. For B. pseudomallei, cell adhesion is mediated by specific membrane proteins such as extracellular adherence protein, flagellin and adhesin. Following the adhesion, B. pseudomallei tends to invade the epithelial cells via specific virulence systems viz., type III (T3SS) and VI (T6SS) secretion systems.
Fig. 2 B. pseudomallei Infection
(Mariappan V.; et al. Front Immunol. 2021)
In recent years, substantial effort has been given to the development of melioidosis vaccines. Many antigens, such as outer membrane protein OmpW, heat shock protein GroEL, type III secreted protein BopA, and the type VI secretion system (T6SS)-associated hemolysin-coregulated proteins (Hcp, including Hcp1, Hcp2, Hcp3, and Hcp6), etc. have been identified as good vaccine candidates for further investigation. Among them, Hcp1, a structural protein forming the secretion tube of T6SS, is an important effector involving in B. pseudomallei pathogenesis and has been one of the subunit vaccine candidates against melioidosis.
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