Abstract

FERNANDEZ F, Sandra  and  ALONSO, Guillermina. Cholera and Vibrio cholerae. INHRR [online]. 2009, vol.40, n.2, pp.50-69. ISSN 0798-0477.

The Cholera is an acute infectious diarrhea produced by Vibrio cholerae. Mainly the transmission takes place through contaminated water or foods. Antibiotic administration during the acute phase of the disease can reduce the severity of the symptoms. Since 1977, strains of V. cho lerae O1 with multiple antibiotic resistances have been characterized. The resistance determinants have been reported mainly associated to plasmids and integrones. Historically, the serogrupo O1 had been associated with epidemics of Cholera. In 1992, a new serogrupo, designated O139, emerged as the strain of cause from a big Cholera outbreak. The massive diarrhea is caused by the choleric toxin (CT). Operon ctxAB, that codifies the CT, is carried in lisogenic filamentous bacteriophage in the bacterium. "Quorum-sensing" negatively regulates the expression of the virulence genes in V.cholerae. The genome of V.cholerae El Tor consists of two circular chromosomes with a pronounced asymmetry in the distribution of the genes. Several patogenics islands (PAIs) have been detected in the genome of V.cholerae. In aquatic environments the existence of "viable but non cultivable" V.cholerae, has been reported. This phenomenon represents a new perspective in the role in survival in the natural environment with new epidemiological implications. The Cho lera has been catalogued as an "emergent, re-emergent disease" that threatens developing countries. The results of different investigators groups have established that horizontal transference of genes had influence in the pathogenicity and has been important in the evolution of V.cholerae. Several mysteries in the origin of the pathogenics clones still remain, but, the new technologies will reveal significant data about the origin of this pathogen, former an estuary innocuous bacterium

Keywords : Cholera; Vibrio cholerae; Cholera/metabolism; Cholera Toxin/pharmacology/*physiology; Cholera/Quorum-sensing; Cholera/epidemiology/molecular epidemiology; Vibrio cholerae/pathogenicity/physiology; Virulence Factors.