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Activity of Lactobacillus crispatus isolated from vaginal microbiota against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

  • Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Microbe Interaction
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Abstract

Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It remains a significant public health issue around the globe, causing about 1.8 million deaths every year. Drug-resistant M. tuberculosis, including multi-drug-resistant (MDR), extremely-drug-resistant (XDR), and totally drug-resistant (TDR) M. tuberculosis, continues to be a threat to public health. In the case of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, the treatment effect of conventional antibiotics is low. Side effects caused by high doses over a long period are causing severe problems. To overcome these problems, there is an urgent need to develop a new anti-tuberculosis drug that is different from the existing compound-based antibiotics. Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms conferring health benefits. They can be potential therapeutic agents in this context as the effectiveness of probiotics against different infectious diseases has been well established. Here, we report that Lactobacillus crispatus PMC201 shows a promising effect on tuberculosis isolated from vaginal fluids of healthy Korean women. Lactobacillus crispatus PMC201 reduced M. tuberculosis H37Rv under co-culture conditions in broth and reduced M. tuberculosis H37Rv and XDR M. tuberculosis in macrophages. Lactobacillus crispatus PMC201 was not toxic to a guinea pig model and did not induce dysbiosis in a human intestinal microbial ecosystem simulator. Taken together, these results indicate that L. crispatus PMC201 can be a promising alternative drug candidate in the current tuberculosis drug regime. Further study is warranted to assess the in vivo efficacy and confirm the mode of action of L. crispatus PMC201.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Korea, under the’ Regional Industry-Based Organization Support Program ‘(reference number P0001942) supervised by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT). This research was also supported by Soonchunhyang University Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, 31151, Republic of Korea

    Youngkyoung Lee, MD Abdur Rahim, Youjin Yoon, Jehee Jung & Ho-Yeon Song

  2. Probiotics Microbiome Convergence Center, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, 31538, Republic of Korea

    Hoonhee Seo, Sukyung Kim, Saebim Lee & Ho-Yeon Song

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, 14584, Republic of Korea

    Chang Beom Ryu

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  1. Youngkyoung Lee
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  2. Hoonhee Seo
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Correspondence to Ho-Yeon Song.

Ethics declarations

Female vaginal fluid sampling was conducted in the obstetrics and gynecology department at Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital under the Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital (eIRB) Ethics Committee (IRB No. 2019- 10-017-005).

The experiment using M. tuberculosis was conducted at Soonchunhyang University Animal Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory (ABSL-3, KDCA-20-3-04).

Following the drug safety evaluation test guidelines provided by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Notice No. 2015-82), this experiment was performed at Soonchunhyang University ABSL-2 facility (LML 20-591). The animal study protocol was reviewed and approved by Soonchunhyang Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) (Approval number: SCH21-0017).

The fecal sample SHIME experimental method was reviewed and approved by the ethical committee of Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Korea (IRB No. 2021-03-012-001).

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The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this study to disclose.

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Lee, Y., Seo, H., Kim, S. et al. Activity of Lactobacillus crispatus isolated from vaginal microbiota against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Microbiol. 59, 1019–1030 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-021-1332-0

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