{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T01:17:17Z","timestamp":1790212637001,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:italic>Leptospira licerasiae<\/jats:italic> serovar Varillal, a group II intermediate pathogen species\/serovar discovered in the Peruvian Amazon city of Iquitos, is commonly recognized in this region by sera from humans (at least 40% seroprevalence) without a known clinical history of leptospirosis. This high frequency of human seroreactivity remains unexplained. To test the hypothesis that the oral route of infection might explain the high rate of human seroreactivity against <jats:italic>L. licerasiae<\/jats:italic>, an experimental infection model using <jats:italic>Rattus norvegicus<\/jats:italic> was developed, given that rats were one of the original reservoir hosts identified as being colonized by this leptospire. Sprague\u2013Dawley rats were experimentally exposed via mucosa, direct gastric gavage, or parenteral inoculation with nine different isolates of <jats:italic>L. licerasiae<\/jats:italic> originally isolated from Peruvian humans, peridomiciliary rodents, and wildlife. As shown by quantitative polymerase chain reaction of kidney tissue, <jats:italic>Leptospira<\/jats:italic> infection via these routes of infection was equally successful. Importantly, the data show that <jats:italic>L. licerasiae<\/jats:italic> infects <jats:italic>R. norvegicus<\/jats:italic> via the oral route, leading to renal colonization. Not only do these findings confirm the infectiousness of group II <jats:italic>Leptospira<\/jats:italic>, but also they underscore the potential importance of oral as well as mucosal and transcutaneous routes of <jats:italic>Leptospira<\/jats:italic> infection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.17-0844","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,6,26]],"date-time":"2018-06-26T07:00:57Z","timestamp":1529996457000},"page":"275-280","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Experimental Infection of Rattus norvegicus by the Group II Intermediate Pathogen, Leptospira licerasiae"],"prefix":"10.4269","volume":"99","author":[{"given":"Carla","family":"Fernandez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aristea A.","family":"Lubar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joseph M.","family":"Vinetz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California;"},{"name":"Laboratorio de Investigaci\u00f3n y Desarollo, Facultad de Ciencias y Filosof\u00eda, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru;"},{"name":"Instituto de Medicina Tropical \u201cAlexander von Humboldt\u201d, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael A.","family":"Matthias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2795","reference":[{"key":"b1","series-title":"Nat Rev Microbiol","first-page":"736","article-title":"Leptospira: the dawn of the molecular genetics era for an emerging zoonotic pathogen","volume":"7","author":"Ko","year":"2009"},{"key":"b2","series-title":"Trop Anim Health Prod","first-page":"427","article-title":"Leptospirosis in pigs, dogs, rodents, humans, and water in an area of the Colombian tropics","volume":"46","author":"Calderon","year":"2014"},{"key":"b3","series-title":"Clin Microbiol Rev","first-page":"296","article-title":"Leptospirosis","volume":"14","author":"Levett","year":"2001"},{"key":"b4","series-title":"Lancet Infect Dis","first-page":"757","article-title":"Leptospirosis: a zoonotic disease of global importance","volume":"3","author":"Bharti","year":"2003"},{"key":"b5","series-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis","first-page":"e213","article-title":"Human leptospirosis caused by a new, antigenically unique Leptospira associated with a Rattus species reservoir in the Peruvian Amazon","volume":"2","author":"Matthias","year":"2008"},{"key":"b6","series-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis","first-page":"e1853","article-title":"Whole genome analysis of Leptospira licerasiae provides insight into leptospiral evolution and pathogenicity","volume":"6","author":"Ricaldi","year":"2012"},{"key":"b7","series-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis","first-page":"e0004403","article-title":"What makes a bacterial species pathogenic?: Comparative genomic analysis of the genus Leptospira","volume":"10","author":"Fouts","year":"2016"},{"key":"b8","series-title":"BMC Microbiol","first-page":"244","article-title":"Comparative analysis of lipopolysaccharides of pathogenic and intermediately pathogenic Leptospira species","volume":"15","author":"Patra","year":"2015"},{"key":"b9","series-title":"J Clin Microbiol","first-page":"3510","article-title":"Species-specific identification of Leptospiraceae by 16S rRNA gene sequencing","volume":"44","author":"Morey","year":"2006"},{"key":"b10","series-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis","first-page":"e0003898","article-title":"Global morbidity and mortality of leptospirosis: a systematic review","volume":"9","author":"Costa","year":"2015"},{"key":"b11","series-title":"J Med Microbiol","first-page":"96","article-title":"First isolation of Leptospira fainei serovar Hurstbridge from two human patients with Weil\u2019s syndrome","volume":"50","author":"Petersen","year":"2001"},{"key":"b12","series-title":"Int J Syst Evol Microbiol","first-page":"671","article-title":"Leptospira broomii sp. nov., isolated from humans with leptospirosis","volume":"56","author":"Levett","year":"2006"},{"key":"b13","series-title":"Emerg Infect Dis","first-page":"548","article-title":"Imported Leptospira licerasiae infection in traveler returning to Japan from Brazil","volume":"23","author":"Tsuboi","year":"2017"},{"key":"b14","series-title":"Epidemiol Infect","first-page":"473","article-title":"Serological titres to Leptospira fainei serovar hurstbridge in human sera in Australia","volume":"121","author":"Chappel","year":"1998"},{"key":"b15","series-title":"Vet Pathol","first-page":"403","article-title":"Development of chronic and acute golden Syrian hamster infection models with Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo","volume":"49","author":"Zuerner","year":"2012"},{"key":"b16","series-title":"BMC Infect Dis","first-page":"20","article-title":"Establishment of a leptospirosis model in guinea pigs using an epicutaneous inoculations route","volume":"12","author":"Zhang","year":"2012"},{"key":"b17","series-title":"Infect Immun","first-page":"7014","article-title":"Lethal infection of C3H\/HeJ and C3H\/SCID mice with an isolate of Leptospira interrogans serovar copenhageni","volume":"73","author":"Nally","year":"2005"},{"key":"b18","series-title":"Infect Immun","first-page":"887","article-title":"Toll-like receptor 4 protects against lethal Leptospira interrogans serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae infection and contributes to in vivo control of leptospiral burden","volume":"74","author":"Viriyakosol","year":"2006"},{"key":"b19","series-title":"Int J Syst Bacteriol","first-page":"851","article-title":"Leptospira fainei sp. nov., isolated from pigs in Australia","volume":"48","author":"Perolat","year":"1998"},{"key":"b20","series-title":"Emerg Infect Dis","first-page":"865","article-title":"Human infection caused by Leptospira fainei","volume":"8","author":"Arzouni","year":"2002"},{"key":"b21","series-title":"Can J Microbiol","first-page":"383","article-title":"Natural defense by saliva and mucosa against oral infection by Leptospira","volume":"60","author":"Asoh","year":"2014"},{"key":"b22","author":"Levett","year":"2003"},{"key":"b23","author":"American Veterinary Medical Association","year":"2013"},{"key":"b24","series-title":"Microb Genom","first-page":"1","article-title":"Deciphering the unexplored Leptospira diversity from soils uncovers genomic evolution to virulence","volume":"4","author":"Thibeaux","year":"2018"},{"key":"b25","series-title":"Appl Environ Microbiol","first-page":"3176","article-title":"A replicative plasmid vector allows efficient complementation of pathogenic Leptospira strains","volume":"81","author":"Pappas","year":"2015"},{"key":"b26","series-title":"Infect Immun","first-page":"3711","article-title":"Inactivation of clpB in the pathogen Leptospira interrogans reduces virulence and resistance to stress conditions","volume":"79","author":"Lourdault","year":"2011"},{"key":"b27","series-title":"Infect Immun","first-page":"5826","article-title":"Targeted mutagenesis in pathogenic Leptospira species: disruption of the LigB gene does not affect virulence in animal models of leptospirosis","volume":"76","author":"Croda","year":"2008"},{"key":"b28","series-title":"Mol Biol Evol","first-page":"772","article-title":"MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: improvements in performance and usability","volume":"30","author":"Katoh","year":"2013"}],"container-title":["The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/view\/journals\/tpmd\/99\/2\/article-p275.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/downloadpdf\/journals\/tpmd\/99\/2\/article-p275.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/downloadpdf\/journals\/tpmd\/99\/2\/article-p275.xml","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,31]],"date-time":"2024-07-31T19:12:08Z","timestamp":1722453128000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ajtmh.org\/view\/journals\/tpmd\/99\/2\/article-p275.xml"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]},"references-count":28,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2"},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4269\/ajtmh.17-0844","relation":{},"ISSN":["0002-9637","1476-1645"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0002-9637","type":"print"},{"value":"1476-1645","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,8,2]]}}}