Search results for " pathogens"
showing 10 items of 191 documents
Potential association of specific Candida parapsilosis genotypes, bloodstream infections and colonization of health workers' hands.
2014
AbstractFungal nosocomial infections continue to be a serious problem among hospitalized patients, decreasing quality of life and adding millions of euros to healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of fungi associated with the hands of healthcare workers and to genotype Candida parapsilosis isolates in order to understand whether their high clinical prevalence stems from endemic nosocomial genotypes or from the real emergence of epidemiologically-unrelated strains. Approximately 39% (50/129) of healthcare workers were positive for yeasts and among 77 different fungal isolates recovered, C. parapsilosis was the most frequent (44/77; 57%). Twenty-seven diverse geno…
Antifungal Activity of Bioactive Metabolites Produced by Trichoderma asperellum and Trichoderma atroviride in Liquid Medium
2020
Trichoderma spp. are known as biocontrol agents of fungal plant pathogens and have been recognized as a potential source of bioactive metabolites. The production of antimicrobial substances from strains T. atroviride (TS) and T. asperellum (IMI 393899) was investigated. The bioactivity of 10- and 30-day culture filtrate extracted with ethyl acetate was assessed against a set of pathogenic fungi and oomycetes. The 30-day extracts of both strains had significant cytotoxic effects against the tested pathogens, with values of minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) ranging between 0.19 and 6.25 mg/mL. Dual culture assay (direct contact and nondirect contact) and the percentage inhibition of radi…
Molecular characterization of Italian Candida parapsilosis isolates reveals the cryptic presence of the newly described species Candida orthopsilosis…
2012
The authors report the molecular characterization of Candida parapsilosis isolates recovered from the blood and venous central catheter tips of patients admitted to different care units of the Polyclinic Hospital, University of Messina, Italy. Among 97 presumed C. parapsilosis isolates examined, 94 were identified as C. parapsilosis sensu stricto and the remaining 3 isolates were found to belong to the cryptic species Candida orthopsilosis which was recovered only from blood cultures of neonates (<30 days old) born prematurely. No C. metapsilosis was found in this study. This study emphasizes the role of C. parapsilosis as an important nosocomial pathogen, and it also describes, for the fir…
Typing methods used in the molecular epidemiology of microbial pathogens: a how-to guide
2013
Microbial typing is often employed to determine the source and routes of infections, confirm or rule out outbreaks, trace cross-transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens, recognize virulent strains and evaluate the effectiveness of control measures. Conventional microbial typing methods have occasionally been useful in describing the epidemiology of infectious diseases. However, these methods are generally considered too variable, labour intensive and time-consuming to be of practical value in epidemiological investigations. Moreover, these approaches have proved to be insufficiently discriminatory and poorly reproducible. DNA-based typing methods rely on the analysis of the genetic m…
Sanitizing food contact surfaces by the use of essential oils
2018
Chemical sanitizers continue to be widely used by the food industry to disinfect food contact surfaces. However, as some chemical disinfectants have been reported to produce unhealthy by-products, alternative and natural compounds need to be investigated. To this end, nine essential oils (EOs) were screened to develop a natural sanitizing solution (SAN) for disinfecting food contact surfaces. Once extracted, their antimicrobial activity and chemical composition were determined. An exploratory multivariate approach was used to investigate the relationships between the chemical and microbiological data sets. Among the tested EOs, Thymbra capitata EO, containing up to 93.31% oxygenated monoter…
The IFN-γ-Inducible GTPase, Irga6, Protects Mice against Toxoplasma gondii but Not against Plasmodium berghei and Some Other Intracellular Pathogens
2011
Clearance of infection with intracellular pathogens in mice involves interferon-regulated GTPases of the IRG protein family. Experiments with mice genetically deficient in members of this family such as Irgm1(LRG-47), Irgm3(IGTP), and Irgd(IRG-47) has revealed a critical role in microbial clearance, especially for Toxoplasma gondii. The in vivo role of another member of this family, Irga6 (IIGP, IIGP1) has been studied in less detail. We investigated the susceptibility of two independently generated mouse strains deficient in Irga6 to in vivo infection with T. gondii, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Leishmania mexicana, L. major, Listeria monocytogenes, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Plasmodium …
Emergence and Phylodynamics of Citrus tristeza virus in Sicily, Italy
2013
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) outbreaks were detected in Sicily island, Italy for the first time in 2002. To gain insight into the evolutionary forces driving the emergence and phylogeography of these CTV populations, we determined and analyzed the nucleotide sequences of the p20 gene from 108 CTV isolates collected from 2002 to 2009. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis revealed that mild and severe CTV isolates belonging to five different clades (lineages) were introduced in Sicily in 2002. Phylogeographic analysis showed that four lineages co-circulated in the main citrus growing area located in Eastern Sicily. However, only one lineage (composed of mild isolates) spread to distant areas of Sici…
Frequent Alterations in Sicilian Olive-yards:First Pathogenicity tests
2010
Inhibitory effects of the main compounds of oregano essential oil against some pathogenic fungi
2008
The in vitro activity of essential oil compounds of Origanum heracleoticum L. was tested against Verticillium dahliae, Fusarium oxysporum, Phoma tracheiphila, Phytophthora cactorum and Botrytis cinerea by the well diffusion method using four different concentrations (from 1 x 104 to 1 x 10-2 μg·ml-1). Analyses by GC-ITMS of the oil extracted by steam distillation from dried inflorescences made it possible to identify 19 main compounds. The major compounds were thymol (39.10 %) followed by γ-terpinene (21.26 %) and ρ-cymene (11.23 %). Carvacrol and the plain essential oil at their higher concentrations showed an inhibitory effect against all pathogens tested. However, the percentage of inhib…
Antibacterial activity of Mediterranean Oyster mushrooms, species of genus Pleurotus (higher Basidiomycetes).
2013
Extracts of the Mediterranean culinary-medicinal Oyster mushrooms Pleurotus eryngii var. eryngii, P. eryngii var. ferulae, P. eryngii var. elaeoselini, and P. nebrodensis were tested for their in vitro growth inhibitory activity against a group of bacterial reference strains of medical relevance: Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, S. epidermidis RP62A, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442, and Escherichia coli ATCC10536. All of the Pleurotus species analyzed inhibited the tested microorganisms in varying degrees. The data included in this paper for P. nebrodensis and P. eryngii var. elaeoselinii are new reports.