2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Evidence of a bathroom environment as a hotspot for the infection of nontuberculous mycobcteria
| Project/Area Number |
18K10041
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 58020:Hygiene and public health-related: including laboratory approach
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| Research Institution | Kobe Institute of Health |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | NTM / Mycobacterium avium / genetic relatedness / VNTR / genetic diversity / bathroom environment / minimum spanning tree |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH) is a typical inhabitat of the environment, especially bathrooms, which are considered as a potential source of infection. To corroborate this hypothesis, we determined the detection rate of MAH in bathrooms of healthy volunteers by an ordinary culture method and we analyzed the genetic relatedness of these isolates with those from patients and other sources such as river water and soil.
A minimum spanning tree generated on the basis of the variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) data indicated that isolates from the bathrooms of the healthy volunteers had a high degree of genetic relatedness with those from Japanese patients, bathrooms of patients, and river water, but not with those from Russian patients and Japanese pigs. These results showed that bathtub inlets in Japan provide an environmental niche for MAH and suggest that bathrooms are one of the important infection sources of MAH in Japan.
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| Free Research Field |
抗酸菌分子疫学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
本研究は、我が国の浴室がNTM菌への日常的な曝露のホットスポットであることを明らかにした。とりわけ、肺NTM症の主要な起因菌であるMycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH)は健常人家庭の浴室環境から高頻度に検出されるのみではなく、本研究における遺伝子解析により、臨床分離株との遺伝的関連性の高さが確認された。
現在、有効な治療方法が確立されていないMAH肺感染症について感染源の一つが特定されたことで、その曝露リスクを低減させることでの感染予防策への道を拓く研究成果であり、学術的にも社会的にも意義の大きな研究成果である。
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