Although elevated concentrations of the MMP-9 sheddase in the sera of patients with acute Q fever and MMP-7 sheddase in the sera of patients with persistent Q fever were previously reported [29,30], it is tempting to postulate that prokaryotic sheddases encoded by C. burnetii could increase E-cad proteolysis [31], as previously reported for several bacteria [25,32,33]. The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is Q fever.