ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1617803
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Immunity and Microbiome: Exploring Key Interactions and InnovationsView all 14 articles
Inflammation Induced by the New Lineage of Vibrio cholerae Serogroup O1 in the Neonatal Mouse Model
Provisionally accepted
- State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
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A novel lineage of serogroup O1 El Tor V. cholerae, genetically distinct from the seventh pandemic strain, has recently been identified in China and linked to diarrheal outbreaks. Investigations were conducted to examine the inflammation in the intestines of mice infected with V. cholerae strains including the new lineage strains VC6050 (ctxAB +) and VC6055 (ctxAB -), as well as the seventh pandemic strains of V. cholerae N16961. The result showed that the colonization abilities of V. cholerae in the intestines of mice infected with VC6050 and N16961 was significantly higher than that of the VC6055 group. Histological sections of the small intestine revealed a few inflammatory cell infiltrations in the muscularis mucosa, with inflammation being the primary form of tissue damage. The transcript changes in the neonatal mouse intestine were primarily associated with immune and inflammation-related genes after V. cholerae infection, including CCL7, CCL17, CCL21, CXCL9, and CXCL10. In comparison to the seventh pandemic strain N16961, the new lineage strains exhibited significant up-regulation of carboxyesterase and genes involved in aquaporin-mediated transport, whereas some inflammation-related genes were down-regulated. When compared to the nontoxigenic strain VC6055, the toxigenic strains N16961 and VC6050 demonstrated significant up-regulation of inflammation-related genes and alpha-defensin gene (Defa). The results suggest that, in comparison to the seventh pandemic strains of V. cholerae, the new lineage strains exhibit lower levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Furthermore, CTX-positive strains, when contrasted with CTX-negative strains, not only activate a greater number of inflammatory factors but also stimulate the host to generate more antimicrobial peptides.
Keywords: Vibrio cholerae, Inflammation, Cytokines and Chemokines, colonization, the neonatal mouse
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fu, Zhang, Liang, Diao, Pang and Kan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Bo Pang, pangbo@icdc.cn
Biao Kan, kanbiao@icdc.cn
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