Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 26, 2022; 10(24): 8443-8449
Published online Aug 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i24.8443
Obligate aerobic, gram-positive, weak acid-fast, nonmotile bacilli, Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens: Minireview of a rare opportunistic pathogen
Daisuke Usuda, Risa Tanaka, Makoto Suzuki, Shintaro Shimozawa, Hayabusa Takano, Yuta Hotchi, Shungo Tokunaga, Ippei Osugi, Risa Katou, Sakurako Ito, Kentaro Mishima, Akihiko Kondo, Keiko Mizuno, Hiroki Takami, Takayuki Komatsu, Jiro Oba, Tomohisa Nomura, Manabu Sugita
Daisuke Usuda, Risa Tanaka, Makoto Suzuki, Shintaro Shimozawa, Hayabusa Takano, Yuta Hotchi, Shungo Tokunaga, Ippei Osugi, Risa Katou, Sakurako Ito, Kentaro Mishima, Akihiko Kondo, Keiko Mizuno, Hiroki Takami, Takayuki Komatsu, Jiro Oba, Tomohisa Nomura, Manabu Sugita, Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Juntendo University Nerima Hospital, Nerima-ku 177-8521, Tokyo, Japan
Takayuki Komatsu, Department of Medicine, Juntendo University, Bunkyo-ku 113-8421, Tokyo, Japan
Author contributions: Usuda D wrote the manuscript; Tanaka R, Suzuki M, Shimozawa S, Takano H, Hotchi Y, Tokunaga S, Osugi I, Katou R, Ito S, Mishima K, Kondo A, Mizuno K, Takami H, Komatsu T, Oba J, Nomura T and Sugita M proofread and revised the manuscript; all authors approved the final version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Daisuke Usuda, MD, PhD, Doctor, Senior Lecturer, Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Juntendo University Nerima Hospital, 3-1-10, Takanodai, Nerima-ku 177-8521, Tokyo, Japan. d.usuda.qa@juntendo.ac.jp
Received: February 9, 2022
Peer-review started: February 9, 2022
First decision: April 28, 2022
Revised: May 9, 2022
Accepted: July 22, 2022
Article in press: July 22, 2022
Published online: August 26, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: Tsukamurella species are obligate aerobic, gram-positive, weak acid-fast, nonmotile bacilli that are found in various environments, including soil, water, and sludge. In 2016, there was a reclassification of species within the genus Tsukamurella, merging the species Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens (T. tyrosinosolvens) and Tsukamurella carboxydivorans. To date, human infections are very rare, and reported infections include pneumonia, brain abscesses, catheter-related bloodstream infections, ocular infections, and bacteremia in patients who are immunocompromised. The golden standards for diagnosis and optimal management still remain to be determined. Immunocompromised patients often experience severe cases due to infection, and life-threatening T. tyrosinosolvens events associated with dissemination and/or failure of source control have occurred. Favorable prognoses can be achieved through earlier identification of the cause of infection, as well as successful management, including appropriate antibiotic therapy together with source control. Further analyses of similar cases are required to establish the most adequate diagnostic methods and treatment regimens for infections.