Skip to main content
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Jul;35(7):1687–1690. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.7.1687-1690.1997

Study of internal transcribed spacer and mitochondrial large-subunit genes of Pneumocystis carinii hominis isolated by repeated bronchoalveolar lavage from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients during one or several episodes of pneumonia.

S Latouche 1, J L Poirot 1, C Bernard 1, P Roux 1
PMCID: PMC229822  PMID: 9196174

Abstract

The objective of this study was to type, analyze, and compare Pneumocystis carinii hominis strains obtained from different samples during a given or recurrent episodes of P. carinii pneumonia (PCP) for epidemiologic purposes. We studied 36 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or induced sputum (IS) samples from 16 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with one or several episodes of PCP. PCR amplification and direct sequencing were performed on the two internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) of P. carinii hominis rRNA genes by using DNA extracted from BAL or IS samples, and the sequences were compared to the mitochondrial large-subunit (mt LSU) gene sequence determined in a previous study in our laboratory. The studies of the mt LSU and ITS sequences showed that some patients (n = 10) were infected with the same strains of P. carinii hominis during a given episode of PCP. In one patient infected with strains with identical sequences in several episodes, the recurrence could have been due to reactivation of organisms not eliminated by treatment during the first episode or to de novo infection by an identical strain. In five patients infected with strains with different sequences in each episode, recurrence was due to de novo infection. Sequence analysis of these two P. carinii hominis gene regions showed that de novo infection can occur in AIDS patients with recurrent PCP.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (123.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bartlett M. S., Lu J. J., Lee C. H., Durant P. J., Queener S. F., Smith J. W. Types of Pneumocystis carinii detected in air samples. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 1996 Sep-Oct;43(5):44S–44S. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1996.tb04980.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bartlett M. S., Smith J. W. Pneumocystis carinii, an opportunist in immunocompromised patients. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1991 Apr;4(2):137–149. doi: 10.1128/cmr.4.2.137. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chen W., Gigliotti F., Harmsen A. G. Latency is not an inevitable outcome of infection with Pneumocystis carinii. Infect Immun. 1993 Dec;61(12):5406–5409. doi: 10.1128/iai.61.12.5406-5409.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hong S. T., Steele P. E., Cushion M. T., Walzer P. D., Stringer S. L., Stringer J. R. Pneumocystis carinii karyotypes. J Clin Microbiol. 1990 Aug;28(8):1785–1795. doi: 10.1128/jcm.28.8.1785-1795.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Keely S. P., Baughman R. P., Smulian A. G., Dohn M. N., Stringer J. R. Source of Pneumocystis carinii in recurrent episodes of pneumonia in AIDS patients. AIDS. 1996 Jul;10(8):881–888. doi: 10.1097/00002030-199607000-00011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Keely S. P., Stringer J. R., Baughman R. P., Linke M. J., Walzer P. D., Smulian A. G. Genetic variation among Pneumocystis carinii hominis isolates in recurrent pneumocystosis. J Infect Dis. 1995 Aug;172(2):595–598. doi: 10.1093/infdis/172.2.595. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Latouche S., Ortona E., Mazars E., Margutti P., Tamburrini E., Siracusano A., Guyot K., Nigou M., Roux P. Biodiversity of Pneumocystis carinii hominis: typing with different DNA regions. J Clin Microbiol. 1997 Feb;35(2):383–387. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.2.383-387.1997. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Latouche S., Poirot J. L., Lavrard I., Miltgen M., Nigou M., Roux P. Usefulness of molecular biology for Pneumocystis carinii hominis pneumonia epidemiology. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 1996 Sep-Oct;43(5):56S–57S. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1996.tb04990.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Latouche S., Roux P., Poirot J. L., Lavrard I., Hermelin B., Bertrand V. Preliminary results of Pneumocystis carinii strain differentiation by using molecular biology. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Dec;32(12):3052–3053. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.12.3052-3053.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lee C. H., Lu J. J., Bartlett M. S., Durkin M. M., Liu T. H., Wang J., Jiang B., Smith J. W. Nucleotide sequence variation in Pneumocystis carinii strains that infect humans. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Mar;31(3):754–757. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.3.754-757.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lee C. H., Lu J. J., Tang X., Jiang B., Li B., Jin S., Bartlett M. S., Lundgren B., Atzori C., Orlando G. Prevalence of various Pneumocystis carinii sp. f. hominis types in different geographical locations. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 1996 Sep-Oct;43(5):37S–37S. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1996.tb04973.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Liu Y., Rocourt M., Pan S., Liu C., Leibowitz M. J. Sequence and variability of the 5.8S and 26S rRNA genes of Pneumocystis carinii. Nucleic Acids Res. 1992 Jul 25;20(14):3763–3772. doi: 10.1093/nar/20.14.3763. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lu J. J., Bartlett M. S., Shaw M. M., Queener S. F., Smith J. W., Ortiz-Rivera M., Leibowitz M. J., Lee C. H. Typing of Pneumocystis carinii strains that infect humans based on nucleotide sequence variations of internal transcribed spacers of rRNA genes. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Dec;32(12):2904–2912. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.12.2904-2912.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lu J. J., Chen C. H., Bartlett M. S., Smith J. W., Lee C. H. Comparison of six different PCR methods for detection of Pneumocystis carinii. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Oct;33(10):2785–2788. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.10.2785-2788.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lundgren B., Cotton R., Lundgren J. D., Edman J. C., Kovacs J. A. Identification of Pneumocystis carinii chromosomes and mapping of five genes. Infect Immun. 1990 Jun;58(6):1705–1710. doi: 10.1128/iai.58.6.1705-1710.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Peters S. E., Wakefield A. E., Sinclair K., Millard P. R., Hopkin J. M. A search for Pneumocystis carinii in post-mortem lungs by DNA amplification. J Pathol. 1992 Feb;166(2):195–198. doi: 10.1002/path.1711660217. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Pifer L. L., Hughes W. T., Stagno S., Woods D. Pneumocystis carinii infection: evidence for high prevalence in normal and immunosuppressed children. Pediatrics. 1978 Jan;61(1):35–41. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Roux P., Lavrard I., Poirot J. L., Chouaid C., Denis M., Olivier J. L., Nigou M., Miltgen M. Usefulness of PCR for detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Sep;32(9):2324–2326. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.9.2324-2326.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Stringer J. R., Stringer S. L., Zhang J., Baughman R., Smulian A. G., Cushion M. T. Molecular genetic distinction of Pneumocystis carinii from rats and humans. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 1993 Nov-Dec;40(6):733–741. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1993.tb04468.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Tanabe K., Fuchimoto M., Egawa K., Nakamura Y. Use of Pneumocystis carinii genomic DNA clones for DNA hybridization analysis of infected human lungs. J Infect Dis. 1988 Mar;157(3):593–596. doi: 10.1093/infdis/157.3.593. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Tsolaki A. G., Miller R. F., Underwood A. P., Banerji S., Wakefield A. E. Genetic diversity at the internal transcribed spacer regions of the rRNA operon among isolates of Pneumocystis carinii from AIDS patients with recurrent pneumonia. J Infect Dis. 1996 Jul;174(1):141–156. doi: 10.1093/infdis/174.1.141. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Vargas S. L., Hughes W. T., Wakefield A. E., Oz H. S. Limited persistence in and subsequent elimination of Pneumocystis carinii from the lungs after P. carinii pneumonia. J Infect Dis. 1995 Aug;172(2):506–510. doi: 10.1093/infdis/172.2.506. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Wada M., Kitada K., Saito M., Egawa K., Nakamura Y. cDNA sequence diversity and genomic clusters of major surface glycoprotein genes of Pneumocystis carinii. J Infect Dis. 1993 Oct;168(4):979–985. doi: 10.1093/infdis/168.4.979. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Wakefield A. E. DNA sequences identical to Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. carinii and Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. hominis in samples of air spora. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Jul;34(7):1754–1759. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.7.1754-1759.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Wakefield A. E., Fritscher C. C., Malin A. S., Gwanzura L., Hughes W. T., Miller R. F. Genetic diversity in human-derived Pneumocystis carinii isolates from four geographical locations shown by analysis of mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Dec;32(12):2959–2961. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.12.2959-2961.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Walzer P. D. Pneumocystis carinii--new clinical spectrum? N Engl J Med. 1991 Jan 24;324(4):263–265. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199101243240411. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES