Whole-Genome Sequencing of Blood-Isolated Lactobacillus johnsonii in Thailand: Clinical Implications and Public Health Relevance.

Abstract

BACKGROUND Lactobacillus johnsonii is a probiotic bacterium commonly found in the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and other animals. It is non-pathogenic and plays a crucial role in maintaining gut health. L. johnsonii is often associated with beneficial effects on the host immune system and digestion.         However, reports of L. johnsonii infections are rare, and their clinical characteristics remain poorly understood. This article reports a case of L. johnsonii isolated from a patient's blood - the first such case documented in Thailand. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on the isolate (LJ-PSU-blood) to investigate its genomic characteristics. CASE REPORT A 25-year-old Thai woman with a large abdominal mass was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and she was started on rituximab-cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, oncovin, and prednisolone chemotherapy. During her first rituximab infusion, she developed a fever, tachypnea, and tachycardia. Her blood cultures revealed an organism after 1 day. L. johnsonii was initially identified and subjected to WGS, and the sequence data were analyzed using bioinformatics tools. The findings demonstrated that the LJ-PSU-blood isolate possessed antibiotic resistance and virulence-associated genes. In addition, this isolate harbored bacteriocin-encoding genes and integrated bacteriophage sequences. Our genome was compared with 21 published genomes from various countries, hosts, and isolation sources. They were grouped into 3 monophyletic clades based on single-nucleotide polymorphism distances. CONCLUSIONS This case report describes the characteristics of L. johnsonii isolated from the blood of a Thai patient. Clinical and WGS data highlight important public health concerns associated with L. johnsonii infections.