Leptospira interrogans  and Leptospira kirschneri are the dominant Leptospira species causing human leptospirosis in Central Malaysia

• Published in: PLoS neglected tropical diseases 2020-03, Vol.14 (3), p.e0008197-e0008197
• Main Authors: Philip, Noraini, Bahtiar Affendy, Norliza, Ramli, Siti Nur Alia, Arif, Muhamad, Raja, Pappitha, Nagandran, Elanngovan, Renganathan, Pukunan, Taib, Niazlin Mohd, Masri, Siti Norbaya, Yuhana, Muhamad Yazli, Than, Leslie Thian Lung, Seganathirajah, Mithra, Goarant, Cyrille, Goris, Marga G A, Sekawi, Zamberi, Neela, Vasantha Kumari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Agglutination; Agglutination Tests; Animals; Bacteriology; Biology and Life Sciences; Causes of; Disease control; DNA; Dominant species; Drug development; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Female; Funding; Gene sequencing; Genes, Bacterial - genetics; Gram-negative bacteria; Health promotion; Health sciences; Hospitals; Human health and pathology; Humans; Identification; Identification and classification; Illnesses; Infections; Infectious diseases; Leptospira; Leptospira - classification; Leptospira - genetics; Leptospira - isolation & purification; Leptospira - pathogenicity; Leptospira interrogans; Leptospira interrogans - genetics; Leptospira interrogans - isolation & purification; Leptospira interrogans - pathogenicity; Leptospirosis; Leptospirosis - blood; Leptospirosis - epidemiology; Leptospirosis - microbiology; Leptospirosis - urine; Life Sciences; Malaysia - epidemiology; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; Middle Aged; Molecular Diagnostic Techniques; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Nucleotide sequence; Parasitology; Pathogens; Patients; PCR; People and Places; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Public health; Research and Analysis Methods; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Rodent Diseases; Rodentia; Rodents; rRNA 16S; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sequencing; Serologic Tests; Serum; Species; Strains; Tertiary; Tropical diseases; Tropical environments; Vaccine development; Vaccines; Young Adult; Zoonoses
• ISSN: 1935-2735; 1935-2727; 1935-2735
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008197

Leptospirosis, commonly known as rat-urine disease, is a global but endemic zoonotic disease in the tropics. Despite the historical report of leptospirosis in Malaysia, the information on human-infecting species is limited. Determining the circulating species is important to understand its epidemiology, thereby to strategize appropriate control measures through public health interventions, diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccine development. We investigated the human-infecting Leptospira species in blood and serum samples collected from clinically suspected leptospirosis patients admitted to three tertiary care hospitals in Malaysia. From a total of 165 patients, 92 (56%) were confirmed cases of leptospirosis through Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) (n = 43; 47%), Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) (n = 63; 68%) or both MAT and PCR (n = 14; 15%). The infecting Leptospira spp., determined by partial 16S rDNA (rrs) gene sequencing revealed two pathogenic species namely Leptospira interrogans (n = 44, 70%) and Leptospira kirschneri (n = 17, 27%) and one intermediate species Leptospira wolffii (n = 2, 3%). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) identified an isolate of L. interrogans as a novel sequence type (ST 265), suggesting that this human-infecting strain has a unique genetic profile different from similar species isolated from rodents so far. Leptospira interrogans and Leptospira kirschneri were identified as the dominant Leptospira species causing human leptospirosis in Central Malaysia. The existence of novel clinically important ST 265 (infecting human), that is different from rodent L. interrogans strains cautions reservoir(s) of these Leptospira lineages are yet to be identified.