In my latest ScienceDirect purge, I came across this article covering Leptospirosis. I had no idea it would be such a dense read, figuring it would be a simple review of the disease with emphasis on new discoveries. I ended up using a lot of immunology references and Google searches. This article isn’t just an entry from the Merck manual.
The article does a very good job of covering Lepto microbiology, but I was especially impressed with the point they made to identify everything we don’t know. Indeed that was the emphasis of the article, that lepto contains so many pathways unique to it as a bacterium that we don’t know nearly as much about it as we do something like E. Coli. Additionally, Lepto is extremely hard to culture, as you end up with non-virulent colonies. They identify and isolate the virulent daughters by inoculating lab animals.
You might assume that immunity to Lepto is a simple thing, given how prevalent Lepto vaccination is due to the zoonotic risk. However the article makes the point multiple times that immunity to one Lepto serovar does not grant immunity to others, though occasionally it can help grant passive immunity or resistance across different species. While the exchange of genetic material between parent and daughter lepto colonies is not well understood, it appears to be slow mutating, which is interesting given how unique the antigens between serovars seem to be.
There’s a lot of complicated immunology discussed in the article that I don’t feel qualified to comment on, but it’s very interesting, and I recommend glancing through. The more microbiology I learn the more I understand that 99% of the workings of the cell happen on membranes (a statement that probably produces a loud “duh” from any student, biologist, or doctor). For a more clinical discussion of Lepto, a simpler reference like Merck or Blackwells will help, as well as several peer-reviewed sources that the article itself recommends for information on clinical presentations.
Adler, B., & de la Peña Moctezuma, A. (2010). Leptospira and leptospirosis Veterinary Microbiology, 140 (3-4), 287-296 DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.03.012
