The groundbreaking research addresses the global threat of cholera, a deadly diarrheal disease that affects millions of people worldwide each year and causes more than 140,000 deaths.
Vibrio cholerae bacteria evolves to thrive better therefore making the disease more serious and more difficult to control and teams working on the disease still have difficulty identifying the exact genetic factors causing these genetic changes. Even less is known about the genomic traits responsible for the severity of cholera resulting from these lineages. Around 1 in 5 people with cholera develop a severe form characterized by a unique and particularly serious combination of symptoms (diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration).
The study analysis of bacterial samples from cholera patients collected between 2015 and 2021 and:
-- identifies a set of unique genes and mutations in the newest and dominant strain of Vibrio cholerae – responsible for devastating outbreaks of 2022;
- these genetic traits are linked to the ability of the bacteria to cause this set of serious symptoms which can lead to death;
- some of the characteristics that cause disease overlap with those that help the bacteria spread more easily;
- some of the genetic factors allow Vibrio cholerae to survive in the human gut, making it more resistant to environmental stress and therefore more effective in causing the disease and its symptoms;
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complex interactions are thus identified between the genetic makeup of the bacteria and its ability to cause serious disease.
By identifying the key genetic factors that determine both the transmission and severity of cholera, the team is taking an important step toward developing more effective treatments and targeted interventions to better control and prevent future outbreaks.
This is therefore a major step forward in the fight against cholera.
