Search results for " TOXIC"
showing 10 items of 3345 documents
Is Caretta Caretta a Carrier of Antibiotic Resistance in the Mediterranean Sea?
2020
Sea turtles can be considered a sentinel species for monitoring the health of marine ecosystems, acting, at the same time, as a carrier of microorganisms. Indeed, sea turtles can acquire the microbiota from their reproductive sites and feeding, contributing to the diffusion of antibiotic-resistant strains to uncontaminated environments. This study aims to unveil the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in (i) loggerhead sea turtles stranded along the coast of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea), (ii) unhatched and/or hatched eggs, (iii) sand from the turtles&rsquo
Comparison of Antibiotic Resistance Profile and Biofilm Production of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates Derived from Human Specimens and Animal-Derived …
2019
Background: The diffusion of antimicrobial resistance is a significant concern for public health worldwide. Staphylococcus aureus represents a paradigm microorganism for antibiotic resistance in that resistant strains appear within a decade after the introduction of new antibiotics. Methods: Fourteen S. aureus isolates from human specimens and twenty-one from samples of animal origin, were compared for their antimicrobial resistance and biofilm capability. In addition, they were characterized at the molecular level to detect the antimicrobial resistance mecA gene and genes related with enterotoxin, toxin, and biofilm production. Results: Both phenotypic and molecular analysis showed main di…
Using GFP-Tagged Escherichia coli to Investigate the Persistence of Fecal Bacteria in Vegetated Wetlands: An Experimental Approach
2020
The contamination of surface water by pathogenic bacteria of human origin is an important public health issue. Wetlands can be contaminated with fecal bacteria by water originating from different sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and agriculture. Escherichia coli is a commensal of the human gut flora and the major indication of fecal contamination in surface water. Little is known about the association between fecal bacteria and submerged macrophytes and how this may influence the water quality. We questioned whether macrophytes enhance or inhibit the bacterial growth in wetlands. For this purpose, we grew four different species of macrophytes (Mentha aquatica, Baldellia ranuncul…
Complex Regulatory Networks Governing Production of the Glycopeptide A40926
2018
Glycopeptides (GPAs) are an important class of antibiotics, with vancomycin and teicoplanin being used in the last 40 years as drugs of last resort to treat infections caused by Gram-positive pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A few new GPAs have since reached the market. One of them is dalbavancin, a derivative of A40926 produced by the actinomycete Nonomuraea sp. ATCC 39727, recently classified as N. gerenzanensis. This review summarizes what we currently know on the multilevel regulatory processes governing production of the glycopeptide A40926 and the different approaches used to increase antibiotic yields. Some nutrients, e.g., valine, l-glutamine and mal…
Characteristics and Management of Candidaemia Episodes in an Established Candida auris Outbreak
2020
The multi-resistant yeast Candida auris has become a global public health threat because of its ease to persist and spread in clinical environments, especially in intensive care units. One of the most severe manifestations of invasive candidiasis is candidaemia, whose epidemiology has evolved to more resistant non-albicansCandida species, such as C. auris. It is crucial to establish infection control policies in order to control an outbreak due to nosocomial pathogens, including the implementation of screening colonisation studies. We describe here our experience in managing a C. auris outbreak lasting more than two and a half years which, despite our efforts in establishing control measure…
Phage Therapy in Livestock and Companion Animals
2021
The irrational use of antibiotics has led to a high emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. The traditional overuse of antibiotics in the animal feed industry plays a crucial role in the emergence of these pathogens that pose both economic and health problems. In addition, antibiotics have also recently experienced an increase to treat companion animal infections, promoting the emergence of MDR bacteria in pets, which can reach humans. Phages have been proposed as an alternative for antibiotics for the treatment of livestock and companion animal infections due to their multiple advantages as adaptative drugs, such as their ability to evolve, to multiply at the site of infections, …
Directed evolution of a Mycobacteriophage
2019
This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacteriophages: Alternatives to Antibiotics and Beyond.
Local adaptation in populations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis endemic to the Indian Ocean Rim
2021
24 páginas, 3 figuras, 1 tabla. The sequence data generated by this study has been deposited on SRA (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra) under the accession number PRJNA670836. Extended data is available here: https://github.com/fmenardo/MTBC_L1_L3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4609804 (Menardo, 2021).
Renewable energies, business models and local growth
2018
Abstract Energy is one of the driving factors of the world economy: energy consumption is closely linked to quality of life and environmental impact. Reducing the use of fossil fuels, curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, and cutting energy dependence from traditional energy producing countries are the cornerstones of European policies for safe, competitive, sustainable, and renewable energy. In addition, the pressing need to provide new and diversified opportunities for supplementary income for the agricultural sector has fueled the desire to engage rural areas in this process. Biogas, derived from the anaerobic digestion of biomass, is one of the renewable energy sources that has been very…
The Anemonia viridis Venom: Coupling Biochemical Purification and RNA-Seq for Translational Research
2018
Blue biotechnologies implement marine bio-resources for addressing practical concerns. The isolation of biologically active molecules from marine animals is one of the main ways this field develops. Strikingly, cnidaria are considered as sustainable resources for this purpose, as they possess unique cells for attack and protection, producing an articulated cocktail of bioactive substances. The Mediterranean sea anemone Anemonia viridis has been studied extensively for years. In this short review, we summarize advances in bioprospecting of the A. viridis toxin arsenal. A. viridis RNA datasets and toxin data mining approaches are briefly described. Analysis reveals the major pool of neurotoxi…