Cécile Bébéar

• MD, PhD
• Professor (Full) Clinical Microbiology, Laboratory Head, Vice-President delegate of Long Life Learning at University of Bordeaux

Introduction Mycoplasma genitalium (Mg) est un agent reconnu et émergent d’infections sexuellement transmissibles (IST). Dans le cadre de la Prophylaxie Pré-Exposition (PrEP), essentiellement proposée à des hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec les hommes (HSH), de nombreuses IST sont diagnostiquées, mais aucune donnée de routine n’est disponib...

We describe a change in the molecular epidemiology of Chlamydia trachomatis strains involved in an outbreak of rectal lymphogranuloma venereum in France during January 2010–April 2015. Until 2012, the C. trachomatis L2b strain predominated; however, starting in 2013, most cases involved the L2 strain. We also identified 4 genetic L2b ompA variants.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae causes community-acquired respiratory tract infections, particularly in school-aged children and young adults. These infections occur both endemically and epidemically worldwide. M. pneumoniae lacks cell wall and is subsequently resistant to beta-lactams and to all antimicrobials targeting the cell wall. This mycoplasma is int...

We retrospectively analyzed 1802 nonrectal Chlamydia trachomatis-positive specimens to determine if the L strains responsible for rectal Lymphogranuloma venereum in men who have sex with men could spread to the heterosexual population. No evidence for Lymphogranuloma venereum transmission among heterosexuals in France was observed in 2013. L2b stra...

The French Reference Centre for chlamydiae uses two real-time PCRs targeting the pmpH gene of C. trachomatis to differentiate between L strains and variant L2b, responsible for LGV outbreak in Europe. We compared the results obtained for 122 L2b C. trachomatis-positive specimens, by the two real-time PCRs, to the sequencing of the ompA gene. Only 9...

Aim: To assess the lipoproteins that are involved in the interaction between Mycoplasma hominis and human dendritic cells. Materials & methods: The surface lipoproteome of M. hominis PG21 was characterized by using Triton X-114 extraction and LC-MS/MS identification. The transcriptional changes in lipoprotein genes upon contact with human dendri...

To the Editor: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a major cause of respiratory infections among children and young adults and is responsible for up to 40% of all community-acquired pneumonia. In 2011, an epidemic of M. pneumoniae infection was reported in several countries in Europe and Asia and in Israel that primarily involved adhesin P1 type 1 strains and...

Background: Rapid commercial assays, including nucleic acid amplification tests and immunoassays for Clostridium. difficile toxins, have replaced the use of older assays. They are included in a two-step algorithm diagnosis, including first the detection of the glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) as a screening method and second the detection of toxins a...

We analysed data of 263 women with at least one genital or anorectal sexually transmitted infection from a cross-sectional study conducted in rural South Africa. We provide new insights concerning concurrence of Chlamydia trachomatis , Neisseria gonorrhoeae , Mycoplasma genitalium and Trichomonas vaginalis infections as well as the characteristics...

The human respiratory tract pathogen M. pneumoniae is one of the best characterized minimal bacterium. Until now, two main groups of clinical isolates of this bacterium have been described (types 1 and 2), differing in the sequence of the P1 adhesin gene. Here, we have sequenced the genomes of 23 clinical isolates of M. pneumoniae. Studying SNPs, n...

Molecular typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae is an important tool for identifying grouped cases and investigating outbreaks. In the present study, we developed a new genotyping method based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from the whole genome sequencing of eight M. pneumoniae strains and using the SNaPshot™ minisequencing assay. Ei...

Typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) is increasingly in use. However, no specific internationally agreed guidance is available. Thirty M. pneumoniae DNA samples including serial dilutions of a type strain were sent to six international laboratories to perform MLVA and results were compared....

Remnant specimens from 601 women obtained in a cross-sectional study from rural South Africa were tested for Mycoplasma genitalium. Overall, 10.8% of women were infected with M. genitalium either in the vagina or in the rectum. Macrolide resistance, although of low prevalence, in M. genitalium is described for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Mycoplasma genitalium screening during pregnancy is not performed routinely in France. We conducted the first prospective study in 1004 women attending for routine antenatal care to determine the prevalence and risk factors for these bacterial infections. The overall prevalence of C. trachomatis, N....

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the insertion sequence IS1294b (IS91 family) is able to mobilize the blaCMY-2 gene and its adjacent regions from one replicon to another. Klebsiella pneumoniae Kp2735 was typed by MLST and its plasmid content was examined by S1-PFGE and PCR-based replicon typing. The genetic blaCMY-2 environmen...

Trois espèces sont responsables de chlamydioses chez l’homme : Chlamydia trachomatis, principal agent bactérien d’infection sexuellement transmissible, Chlamydia pneumoniae, responsable d’infection respiratoire communautaire et Chlamydia psittaci, d’origine aviaire, occasionnellement responsable de pneumopathie. Le diagnostic d’infection à C. trach...

Background. Mycoplasma amphoriforme has been associated with infection in patients with primary antibody deficiency (PAD). Little is known about the natural history of infection with this organism and its ability to be transmitted in the community. Methods. The bacterial load was estimated in sequential sputum samples from 9 patients by quantitativ...

We report a case of polyarthritis with axial involvement in a young female patient treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Detection in the hip fluid of Ureaplasma urealyticum by broad-range PCR followed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry allowed the diagnosis of septic arthritis and ad integrum recovery upon adapted antibiotic therapy.

Introduction – objectifs Les infections à M. pneumoniae (Mp) surviennent sur un mode endémo-épidémique surtout chez les enfants et adultes jeunes avec des manifestations respiratoires et extra-respiratoires. L’objectif de cette étude est de décrire les infections à Mp de l’adulte durant la période épidémique de 2010 à 2012. Matériels et méthodes É...

Mycoplasma genitalium is a sexually transmitted organism commonly treated with azithromycin. However, macrolide resistance has been reported and is associated with point mutations in the 23S rRNA gene. To evaluate the prevalence of macrolide resistance in M. genitalium isolates from clinical specimens from France, we first used a previously reporte...

Genotyping of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a pathogen responsible for community-acquired pneumonia that occurs both endemically and epidemically worldwide, is essential for understanding M. pneumoniae distribution and relatedness and for determining the epidemiology of infection caused by this pathogen. It may also explain most phenotypic variability, su...

The performance of two commercial real-time PCR kits for the detection of Mycoplasma genitalium was evaluated in comparison to an in-house real-time PCR assay. Concordances of 96% and 93% were found for the TIB MOLBIOL and the Diagenode assays, respectively, compared to the results of the in-house assay.

The prevalence of sexually transmitted infections by Chlamydia trachomatis has increased during the past 10 years in France. In 2006, a national survey including biological samples showed that prevalence was highest for those aged 18–24 years: 3·6% in women and 2·4% in men. To increase C trachomatis screening, the French National Institute in Healt...

La défense face aux pathogènes et le contrôle de l’intégrité de l’organisme sont les fonctions cardinales du système immunitaire. La volonté de comprendre les mécanismes qui sous-tendent ces deux fonctions a généré différentes théories depuis le début du xxe siècle. Du concept soi/non-soi au modèle « Danger », l’horizon immunologique s’est considér...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae has been implicated in asthma exacerbations and chronic asthma. A two-year longitudinal study has been conducted to investigate the role of M. pneumoniae infections in 168 and 20 hospitalized children and adults, respectively, with asthma exacerbation compared with outpatients (88 children and 48 adults) with chronic asthma (w...

Mycoplasma genitalium is an important cause of sexually transmitted infections that is gaining recognition and is an independent cause of acute and chronic nongonococcal urethritis in men. M. genitalium has been implicated as a possible causative factor in reactive arthritis. We report a case of reactive arthritis complicating M. genitalium urethri...

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has recently emerged as a new technology for the identification of bacteria. In this study, we aimed to evaluate its applicability to human and ruminant mycoplasma identification, which can be demanding and time-consuming using phenotypic or molecular method...

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection spreads in Europe and in USA, and tendencies analysis shows an increase in the epidemic since last 10 years. In France, in 2006, a national survey carried out by phone and using a home-based sampling showed that CT prevalence was the highest in young people, with 3.6% for women and 2.4% in men aged 18–24 yo. To...

At the Bordeaux University Hospital, among pregnant women aged less than 25 years-old the prevalence of C. trachomatis (CT) and N. gonorrhoeae (NG) is 12.5% and 2.4%, respectively for those requesting abortion by using the Abbott m2000 CT/NG test, and 7.9% and 0%, respectively, for those consulting for monitoring pregnancy by using the Roche Cobas...

The objective of this study was to assess the utility of a supplementary PCR test following a positive Abbott m2000 PCR test result for Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) issued from urogenital specimens tested in the Department of Bacteriology at the Bordeaux University Hospital, France in 2011–2013. All NG-positive PCR specimens either negative with NG c...

Objectives Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) is a sexually transmitted organism associated with non-gonococcal urethritis in men and several inflammatory reproductive tract syndromes in women. These infections are commonly treated with azithromycin. However macrolide resistance has been reported and is associated with point mutations in domain V of the 23...

Background Mycoplasma hominis is an opportunistic human mycoplasma species that can cause various urogenital infections and, less frequently, extragenital infections. The objective of this work was to study the genetic diversity of this species using a molecular typing method based on multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (ML...

An increased incidence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections was reported in 2011 in two cities in France, Bordeaux and Caen. Two complementary molecular typing methods, PCR-RFLP on adhesin P1 and multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), were used to determine whether this phenomenon was clonal. In 2011, the percentage of M. pneumoni...

In this prospective study we compared the fully automated cobas® 4800 CT/NG and the cobas® TaqMan CT tests for Chlamydia trachomatis detection in urines and in genital specimens collected with Copan flocked swabs in culture media. Moreover, we established a protocol for the highly sensitive detection of C. trachomatis in semen specimens using the c...

Mycoplasma genitalium is a sexually transmitted organism associated with non-gonococcal urethritis in men and several inflammatory reproductive tract syndromes in women such as cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and infertility. There was evidence for an association of M. genitalium with endometritis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), but...

An international multilaboratory collaborative study was conducted to develop standard media and consensus methods for the performance and quality control of antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Mycoplasma hominis, and Ureaplasma urealyticum using broth microdilution and agar dilution techniques. A reference strain from th...

A child with Job's syndrome was treated for pneumonia due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. A mixed population of wild-type bacteria and an A2059G mutant was detected during josamycin treatment failure. The same multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) type (MLVA type I) was isolated before and after treatment failure. The child recovered a...

Mycoplasma genitalium is a sexually transmitted organism associated with non-gonococcal urethritis in men and several inflammatory reproductive tract syndromes in women. Resistance to macrolides has been recently associated with point mutations in the 23S rRNA gene. The aim of this study was to detect these mutations using a large French collection...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections occur both endemically and epidemically, and macrolide resistance has been spreading for 10 years worldwide. A substantial increased incidence of M. pneumoniae infections has been reported in several countries since 2010. Whether this increased incidence is attributed to different or to the same M. pneumoniae genoty...

Objectives To investigate the performance of the Bio-Rad Dx CT/NG/MG Assay with an internal control for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) in urogenital samples in comparison with the Roche Cobas TaqMan CT test and an in-house TaqMan PCR test for MG. For Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), only positive PCR results w...

Chlamydia trachomatis is responsible for both trachoma and sexually transmitted infections, causing substantial morbidity and economic cost globally. Despite this, our knowledge of its population and evolutionary genetics is limited. Here we present a detailed phylogeny based on whole-genome sequencing of representative strains of C. trachomatis fr...

This study describes a new multilocus variable number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) typing system for the discrimination of Chlamydia trachomatis genovar D to K isolates or specimens. We focused our MLVA scheme on genovar E which predominates in most populations worldwide. This system does not require culture and therefore can be performed d...

Characteristics of the 85 non-E genovar C. trachomatis-positive specimens and C. trachomatis reference strains. aReference strains and positive specimens are preceded by the letters I and S, respectively. (DOC)

Characteristics of the 146 C. trachomatis genovar E isolates and the 74 positive specimens used in this study. aIsolates and positive specimens are preceded by the letters IE and SE, respectively. Specimens corresponding to isolates are indicated in parentheses. bFor the French isolates and specimens, the city is specified before the country. cIsol...

In this study, 76 French and Tunisian urogenital specimens were subjected to molecular typing by using the two main Mycoplasma genitalium molecular typing methods, the mgpB single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing method and the combination analysis of a variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) marker in MG309 and mgpB SNP. Furthermore, we tried to...

Mycoplasma hominis, a human urogenital pathogen, is involved in genital and extragenital infections and arthritis, particularly in immunocompromised patients. The interleukin (IL) 23/T helper (Th) 17 axis is associated with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the IL-23 response to M. hominis in human dendritic...

Clin Microbiol Infect 2011; 17: E21–E23 Since 2003, outbreaks of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) have been reported in European countries, North America, and Australia. Current LGV cases have been caused by Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L2. This sexually transmitted infection is predominantly found among men who have sex with men, specifically men w...

Mycoplasma genitalium is the smallest microorganism capable of self-replication. With its small genome, M. genitalium is the best representative of a minimal cell. The comparison of genome evolution among the three urogenital mycoplasmas, M. genitalium, M. hominis, and Ureaplasma parvum, not only indicated that they share a core genome of ~250 prot...

Objectives To assess the performance of the Roche fully automated cobas® 4800 CT/NG test for the detection of C trachomatis (CT) infection in clinical specimens compared to the current routine practice. Methods Consecutive clinical specimens sent to the Bacteriology department of the Bordeaux University Hospital, Bordeaux, between July and Septembe...

Background In addition to common urogenital samples, semen specimens are used to detect Chlamydia trachomatis (CT). In France, testing of semen specimens is mandatory by law in context of donors and in vitro fertilisation. However, semen specimens are known to show significant inhibition in PCR assays. Analysis of cycles of threshold (ct) values ca...

Patients with Enterobacter community-acquired pneumonia (EnCAP) were admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU). Our primary aim was to describe them as few data are available on EnCAP. A comparison with CAP due to common and typical bacteria was performed. Baseline clinical, biological and radiographic characteristics, criteria for health-care-asso...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a pathogenic mycoplasma responsible for respiratory tract infections in humans, which occurs worldwide in children and adults. This article focuses on its antibiotic susceptibility profile and on the development of acquired resistance in this microorganism. The lack of a cell wall in mycoplasmas makes them intrinsically res...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among Pseudomonas aeruginosa acquisition on the intensive care unit (ICU), environmental contamination and antibiotic selective pressure against P. aeruginosa. An open, prospective cohort study was carried out in a 16-bed medical ICU where P. aeruginosa was endemic. Over a six-month peri...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of antibiotics on Chlamydia trachomatis viability by using a quantitative real-time PCR assay that measured DNA replication and mRNA transcription of the structural omp1 and omp2 genes, 16S rRNA and the groEL1 gene with and without antibiotics. Ofloxacin, moxifloxacin, azithromycin and doxycyc...

Specific microbiologic, molecular, and serologic assays are hardly available in Tunis to confirm a suspected infection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP). These diagnosis methods were used for the first time in a Tunisian prospective study to estimate the prevalence of MP infection in children and to evaluate their usefulness for diagnosis. A total of 5...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is responsible for acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs) common in children and young adults. As M. pneumoniae is innately resistant to beta-lactams antibiotics usually given as the first-line treatment for RTIs, specific and early diagnosis is important in order to select the right treatment. Serology is the most used dia...

Clin Microbiol Infect 2011; 17: 155–159 Mycoplasma hominis is an opportunistic human mycoplasma species that can be either commensal or pathogenic. Its detection by culture is considered to comprise the reference technique. Previously reported PCR techniques target the 16S rRNA or the gap gene, although sequence variations among clinical isolates m...

Mycobacterium intracellulare, a species of the Mycobacterium avium complex, may be the cause of severe lung, lymphatic node, skin and bone/joint infections, as well as bacteriemia. The goal of this work was to identify Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) markers and to study their variability in a co...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae are respiratory tract pathogens frequently involved in community-acquired pneumonia, but are fastidious microorganisms. Their direct detection mainly requires molecular amplification techniques. A nucleic acid extraction system, NucliSENS easyMAG, and a real-time nucleic acid sequence-based amplificati...

Analysis of the M.hominis genomic region MHO_0120-MHO_0140. (A) Schematic of the homologous genomic regions encoding a Type III restriction-modification system in U. parvum (UU), M. hominis (MHO), and M. pulmonis (MYPU). Homologous genes are connected by dashed lines. (B) Partial amino acid and nucleotide multiple alignments corresponding to the C-...

Mycoplasma hominis is an opportunistic human mycoplasma. Two other pathogenic human species, M. genitalium and Ureaplasma parvum, reside within the same natural niche as M. hominis: the urogenital tract. These three species have overlapping, but distinct, pathogenic roles. They have minimal genomes and, thus, reduced metabolic capabilities characte...

Three isolates of Mycoplasma amphoriforme, a new Mycoplasma species rarely described to date, were obtained from respiratory tract specimens from two children and one adult with respiratory tract infections. Molecular methods were required to distinguish them from Mycoplasma pneumoniae. MICs of macrolides, tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones were id...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common aetiological agent of community-acquired respiratory tract infections for which macrolides are the treatment of choice. In France, only two macrolide-resistant isolates were reported in 1999. In contrast, several recent data reported that macrolide-resistant M. pneumoniae isolates have been spreading since 2000 in...

The performances of five commercial TaqMan real-time PCR assays for the detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in respiratory tract specimens were evaluated in comparison with an in-house real-time PCR. All kits allowed prompt and specific results, validated by the use of an internal control. The Nanogen kit showed the best clinical sensitivity.

In this study we report on the development of a multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) method for the molecular typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The genomic content of M. pneumoniae M129 was analyzed for VNTRs, and 5 of the 17 VNTRs identified were selected for use in an MLVA assay. The method was based on a GeneScan analys...