Deepak Chouhan
Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, India
Title: Mycobacterium abscessus infection in the stomach of patients with various gastric symptoms
Biography
Biography: Deepak Chouhan
Abstract
Development of gastric diseases like gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer depends on several biotic and abiotic factors and Helicobacter pylori infection is a well-known biotic factor. However, not all H. pylori-infected individuals develop gastric diseases and not all individuals with gastric diseases are infected with H. pylori. Therefore, it is possible that other gastric bacteria also contribute to the formation and progression of gastric diseases. The aim of this study was to isolate prevalent gastric bacteria using microaerobic condition and identify them by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Here, we report that infection of Mycobacterium abscessus (phylum Actinobacteria) is highly prevalent in the stomach of Trivandrum, India, population. Our data show that of 129 (67 men and 62 women) patients with gastric symptoms 96 (51 men and 45 women) were colonized with M. abscessus. The infection of M. abscessus in gastric epithelium was further confirmed by imaging with acid-fast staining, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence. Our imaging data strongly suggests that M. abscessus is an intracellular colonizer residing inside the gastric epithelial cells rather than in macrophages. Surprisingly, for Trivandrum population, the prevalence of M. abscessus infection in the stomach is even higher than the prevalence of H. pylori infection. This, to the best of our knowledge, is the first study showing the colonization of M. abscessus in human gastric mucosa among patients with various gastric symptoms. We have also done clarithromycin antibiotic sensitivity test, erm (41) and rrl gene sequencing of these M. abscessus isolates from gastric disease individuals.