Mycolactone Diffuses into the Peripheral Blood of Buruli Ulcer Patients - Implications for Diagnosis and Disease Monitoring

Abstract

Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer (BU), is unique among human pathogens in its capacity to produce a polyketide-derived macrolide called mycolactone, making this molecule an attractive candidate target for diagnosis and disease monitoring. Whether mycolactone diffuses from ulcerated lesions in clinically accessible samples and is modulated by antibiotic therapy remained to be established. Peripheral blood and ulcer exudates were sampled from patients at various stages of antibiotic therapy in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Total lipids were extracted from serum, white cell pellets and ulcer exudates with organic solvents. The presence of mycolactone in these extracts was then analyzed by a recently published, field-friendly method using thin layer chromatography and fluorescence detection. This approach did not allow us to detect mycolactone accurately, because of a high background due to co-extracted human lipids. We thus used a previously established approach based on high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. By this means, we could identify structurally intact mycolactone in ulcer exudates and serum of patients, and evaluate the impact of antibiotic treatment on the concentration of mycolactone. Our study provides the proof of concept that assays based on mycolactone detection in serum and ulcer exudates can form the basis of BU diagnostic tests. However, the identification of mycolactone required a technology that is not compatible with field conditions and point-of-care assays for mycolactone detection remain to be worked out. Notably, we found mycolactone in ulcer exudates harvested at the end of antibiotic therapy, suggesting that the toxin is eliminated by BU patients at a slow rate. Our results also indicated that mycolactone titres in the serum may reflect a positive response to antibiotics, a possibility that it will be interesting to examine further through longitudinal studies. Mycolactone is a diffusible cytotoxin produced by Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of the skin disease Buruli ulcer. In a previous study using animal models, we reported that mycolactone released by cutaneous foci of infection gains access to the peripheral blood. Here we investigated whether mycolactone circulates in human patients and is detectable in clinically accessible samples. Using a combination of solvent extraction, high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis, we found that structurally intact mycolactone was present in ulcer exudates obtained from wound swabs and in the serum of patients. Unexpectedly, high titres of mycolactone were detected in ulcer exudates after completion of antibiotic treatment. In contrast, mycolactone could only be detected in the serum of newly diagnosed patients. Our results demonstrate that mycolactone detection in serum and ulcer exudates may be used to diagnose BU. Moreover, they suggest that the kinetics of mycolactone concentration in serum may be indicative of the clinical response of patients to antibiotic therapy.