In 2013, national serosurveillance detected a high seroprevalence of antibodies to pertussis toxin (PT) from Bordetella pertussis among Japanese adults. Thus, we aimed to determine the cause(s) of this high seroprevalence, and analyzed the titers of antibodies to PT and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) among adults (35-44 years old), young children (4-7 years old), and older children (10-14 year...

The classical bordetellae are comprised of three subspecies that differ from broad to very limited host specificity. Although several lineages appear to have specialized to particular host species, most retain the ability to colonize and grow in mice, providing a powerful common experimental model to study their differences. One of the subspecies, Bordetella parapertussis, is composed of two di...

The genus Bordetella includes a group of closely related mammalian pathogens that cause a variety of respiratory diseases in a long list of animals (B. bronchiseptica) and whooping cough in humans (B. pertussis and B. parapertussis). While past research has examined how these pathogens are eliminated from the lower respiratory tract, the host factors that control and/or clear the bordetellae fr...

A 4-year retrospective study showing that we isolated Bordetella holmesii, but not Bordetella pertussis, from patients with pertussis-like symptoms was performed. From 1995 through 1998, we isolated B. holmesii from 32 nasopharyngeal specimens that had been submitted from patients suspected of having pertussis. Previously, B. holmesii had been associated mainly with septicemia and was not thoug...

The dlt operon encodes proteins that alanylate teichoic acids, the major components of cell walls of gram-positive bacteria. This generates a net positive charge on bacterial cell walls, repulsing positively charged molecules and conferring resistance to animal and human cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. AMPs damage the bacterial membrane and are the m...

We report the repeated isolation of Bordetella petrii in the sputum of a 79-year-old female patient with diffuse bronchiectasis and persistence of the bacterium for >1 year. The patient was first hospitalized due to dyspnea, which developed into severe cough with purulent sputum that yielded B. petrii on culture. After this first episode, the patient was hospitalized an additional 4 times with ...