Background and objectives: Melioidosis, caused by the gram-negative bacillus Burkholderia pseudomallei, is a major cause of fatal community acquired infection in diabetic patients. Protective immune response in human melioidosis is not clearly understood yet. In this study, serum IgM/IgG and bactericidal antibody response to B. pseudomallei were determined in diabetic patients with acute localized abscess and septicemia.

Material and methods: Culture positive melioidosis cases with diabetes mellitus were included in the study. Blood samples were collected from the respective cases in active phase of the disease within 1 or 2 days of being culture positive. Anti- B. pseudomallei IgM and IgG and serum bactericidal antibody were measured by ELISA and microplate based bactericidal assay respectively.

Results: A total of 10 culture positive acute melioidosis cases with diabetes mellitus were included in the study. Out of 10 cases, 5 had abscess in different organs and 5 had septicemia. The mean age of the patients was 48.5 ± 3.91 years and 7 (70%) were male and 3 (30%) were female. The mean anti- B. pseudomallei IgM titer of septicemic and abscess cases were not significantly different (14,080 ± 4,489.13 vs. 19,200 ± 3,620.39; p = 0.4) while the mean IgG titers of two groups were > 204,800. Out of 10 cases, 9 (90%) were positive for serum bactericidal antibody. Mean serum bactericidal antibody titer of septicemia cases (66 ± 26) was not significantly (p = 0.72) different than those of localized infection (80 ± 28.28).

Conclusion: The results indicate that high anti- B. pseudomallei IgM/IgG and serum bactericidal antibodies are induced in diabetic patients with septicemia and suppurative infections. This immune response in diabetics might be important to contain the infection and help in recovery.

January 2025; Vol. 19(1):009.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.55010/imcjms.19.009

*Correspondence: Sraboni Mazumder, Department of Microbiology, Ibrahim Medical College, 1/A Ibrahim Sarani, Segunbaghicha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: [email protected];

© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).