Molecular epidemiological study on the causative agent of cat scratch disease, Bartonella henselae

亨氏巴尔通体是猫抓病(CSD)的病原体。我们使用基于DNA序列的基因分型方法对来自CSD患者和猫的亨塞氏杆菌分离株进行了特征鉴定。我们的研究表明，在日本，人类感染可以由MST集群1中的亨塞氏杆菌菌株引起，不同于包含休斯顿-1和马赛类型菌株的集群。此外，我们还建立了一种基于3个毒力基因(virB5、BEPA和BADA)的基因分型方法，揭示了亨氏不动杆菌在日本的基因分布。

Bartonella henselae is the causative agent of cat scratch disease(CSD). We characterized B. henselae isolates from CSD patients and cats using DNA sequence-based genotyping methods. Our study demonstrated that human infections in Japan can be caused by B. henselae strains in MST cluster 1, distinct from clusters containing the Houston-1 and Marseille type strains. Furthermore, we developed a novel genotyping method based on three virulence genes(virB5, bepA and badA), and uncovered the genotypic distribution of B. henselae in Japan.