Inflammation is a hallmark of brucellosis. Although Brucella abortus, one of the disease's etiologic agents, possesses cytokine-stimulatory properties, the mechanism by which this bacterium triggers a proinflammatory response is not known. We examined the mechanism whereby heat-killed B. abortus (HKBA), as well as its LPS, induces production of inflammatory cytokines in monocytes/macrophages. P...

Dendritic cells (DCs) orchestrate host defenses against microorganisms. In infectious diseases due to intracellular bacteria, the inefficiency of the immune system to eradicate microorganisms has been attributed to the hijacking of DC functions. In this study, we selected intracellular bacterial pathogens with distinct lifestyles and explored the responses of monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs). Using...

The objective of the present study was to improve the detection of B. abortus by PCR in organs of aborted fetuses from infected cows, an important mechanism to find infected herds on the eradication phase of the program. So, different DNA extraction protocols were compared, focusing the PCR detection of B. abortus in clinical samples collected from aborted fetuses or calves born from cows chall...

Erythritol is the preferential carbon source for most brucellae, a group of facultative intracellular bacteria that cause a worldwide zoonosis. Since this polyol is abundant in genital organs of ruminants and swine, it is widely accepted that erythritol accounts at least in part for the characteristic genital tropism of brucellae. Nevertheless, proof of erythritol availability and essentiality ...

This study aimed to assess the exposure of free-living jaguars (Panthera onca) to Leptospira spp. and Brucella abortus in two conservation units in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The presence of antibodies in blood samples of eleven jaguars was investigated using autochthonous antigens isolated in Brazil added to reference antigen collection applied to diagnosis of leptospirosis by Micros...

Brucella abortus releases two components (fractions 3b and 10) that inhibit the myeloperoxidase-H2O2-halide antibacterial system of bovine neutrophils by inhibiting degranulation. Fractions 3b and 10 were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromotography and compared with nucleotide and base standards. These investigations indicated that fraction 3b coeluted and c...

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain proteins (NODs) are modular cytoplasmic proteins implicated in the recognition of peptidoglycan-derived molecules. Further, several in vivo studies have demonstrated a role for Nod1 and Nod2 in host defense against bacterial pathogens. Here, we demonstrated that macrophages from NOD1-, NOD2-, and Rip2-deficient mice produced lower levels of TNF-α follow...

The existence of enterobacterial common antigen in Yersinia enterocolitica and its absence in Brucella abortus were utilized in an attempt to provide a method to distinguish Brucella infections from infections with cross-reacting Yersinia. The indirect hemagglutination test was employed for this purpose. In experimental laboratory animals, the presence of anti-enterobacterial common antigen was...

Murine monoclonal antibodies that bind the O-antigens of Yersinia enterocolitica serotype O:9 and Brucella abortus 1119-3 were generated after immunization of BALB/c mice with killed, whole cells. Highly purified lipopolysaccharide preparations from each organism were used to screen for antigen-specific antibodies. Immunization with B. abortus cells induced 56 antigen-specific hybrids, and 10 o...

Phosphatidylcholine (PC), a common phospholipid of the eukaryotic cell membrane, is present in the cell envelope of the intracellular pathogen Brucella abortus, the etiological agent of bovine brucellosis. In this pathogen, the biosynthesis of PC proceeds mainly through the phosphatidylcholine synthase pathway; hence, it relies on the presence of choline in the milieu. These observations imply ...