德国罗伯特·科赫研究所Fabian H. Leendertz研究组发现野生黑猩猩中的麻风病。相关论文于2021年10月13日在线发表在《自然》杂志上。
研究人员报道了在西非数个地方的两个西部黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes verus）野生种群中出现的麻风病样病变。对这两个种群的纵向监测显示，疾病症状的发展与晚期麻风病相一致。对粪便和尸体样本的筛查证实了麻风分枝杆菌是每个地点的病原体，与来自人类和其他动物的其他菌株的系统基因组比较表明，黑猩猩的菌株属于不同的罕见基因型（4N/O和2F）。这些发现表明，麻风病可能在更多的野生动物中传播，这可能是由于暴露于人类或其他未知环境来源的结果。
据悉，人类被认为是麻风分枝杆菌（导致麻风病的主要病原体）的主要宿主，但也发生了外溢现象，现在其他哺乳动物也是维持宿主，如九带犰狳和红松鼠。尽管在圈养的非人类灵长类动物中也有自然获得性麻风病的描述，但感染的确切来源仍不清楚。
附：英文原文
Title: Leprosy in wild chimpanzees
Author: Hockings, Kimberley J., Mubemba, Benjamin, Avanzi, Charlotte, Pleh, Kamilla, Dx, Ariane, Bersacola, Elena, Bessa, Joana, Ramon, Marina, Metzger, Sonja, Patrono, Livia V., Jaffe, Jenny E., Benjak, Andrej, Bonneaud, Camille, Busso, Philippe, Couacy-Hymann, Emmanuel, Gado, Moussa, Gagneux, Sebastien, Johnson, Roch C., Kodio, Mamoudou, Lynton-Jenkins, Joshua, Morozova, Irina, Mtz-Rensing, Kerstin, Regalla, Aissa, Said, Ablio R., Schuenemann, Verena J., Sow, Samba O., Spencer, John S., Ulrich, Markus, Zoubi, Hyacinthe, Cole, Stewart T., Wittig, Roman M., Calvignac-Spencer, Sebastien, Leendertz, Fabian H.
Issue&Volume: 2021-10-13
Abstract: Humans are considered as the main host for Mycobacterium leprae1, the aetiological agent of leprosy, but spillover has occurred to other mammals that are now maintenance hosts, such as nine-banded armadillos and red squirrels2,3. Although naturally acquired leprosy has also been described in captive nonhuman primates4,5,6,7, the exact origins of infection remain unclear. Here we describe leprosy-like lesions in two wild populations of western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau and Ta National Park, Cte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Longitudinal monitoring of both populations revealed the progression of disease symptoms compatible with advanced leprosy. Screening of faecal and necropsy samples confirmed the presence of M.leprae as the causative agent at each site and phylogenomic comparisons with other strains from humans and other animals show that the chimpanzee strains belong to different and rare genotypes (4N/O and 2F). These findings suggest that M.leprae may be circulating in more wild animals than suspected, either as a result of exposure to humans or other unknown environmental sources.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03968-4
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03968-4
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
