Search results for "Antimicrobials"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
Alimentary and Pharmaceutical Approach to Natural Antimicrobials against Clostridioides difficile Gastrointestinal Infection
2021
Incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has been increasing in recent decades due to different factors, namely (i) extended use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, (ii) transmission within asymptomatic and susceptible patients, and (iii) unbalanced gastrointestinal microbiome and collateral diseases that favor C. difficile gastrointestinal domination and toxin production. Although antibiotic therapies have resulted in successful control of CDI in the last 20 years, the development of novel strategies is urged in order to combat the capability of C. difficile to generate and acquire resistance to conventional treatments and its consequent proliferation. In this regard, vegetable and…
Green tea extract assisted low-temperature pasteurization to inactivate enteric viruses in juices.
2020
The current popularity of minimally processed foods is an opportunity for natural antimicrobial agents to be combined with mild heat treatments to act synergistically in reducing viral foodborne pathogens. Viral inactivation by heat-treatments (at 25, 40, 50 and 63 °C for 30 min) combined with aged green tea extract (aged-GTE) was initially evaluated in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) against murine norovirus (MNV-1) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) by cell culture, and against human norovirus by in situ capture RT-qPCR. The combination of aged-GTE and heat treatment at 50 °C for 30 min exerted strong antiviral activity, reducing by more than 5 log MNV-1 infectivity in PBS. Heating at 40 °C for …
Bacterial biofilms: a challenge in the discovery of new anti-infective agents.
2010
The ability to form a biofilm, bacterial communities able to grow on surfaces and surrounded by an extracellular polymeric substance biofilm agents.Our research group focused on discovering of novel chemical agents of potential therapeutic utility in the treatment of staphylococcal biofilm-associatedinfections by screening novel compounds (synthetic or natural). In a recent study, the antistaphylococcalbiofilm activity of pyrrolomycins C,D, F1, F2a, F2b, F3 a family of halogenated pyrroles which are naturally produced byActinosporangium vitaminophylum and of the synthesized related compounds I, II, III were investigated and compared (Schillaci et al, 2010). We also focused on marine inverte…
Anticancer, antioxidant, and antibacterial activities of low molecular weight bioactive subfractions isolated from cultures of wood degrading fungus …
2017
The aim of this study is to investigate in vitro the anticancer, antioxidant, and antibacterial activities of three low molecular weight subfractions I, II and III isolated from secondary metabolites produced by the wood degrading fungus Cerrena unicolor. The present study demonstrated that the low molecular weight subfractions III exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity towards breast carcinoma cells MDA-MB-231, prostatic carcinoma cells PC3, and breast cancer cells MCF7 with the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 52,25 μg/mL, 60,66 μg/mL, and 54,92 μg/mL, respectively. The highest percentage of inhibition was noted at a concentration of 300 μg/mL in all the examined…
Prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use at the university hospital "paolo giaccone", palermo, italy
2013
Introduction. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance are well known major public health threats. The first goal of our study was to describe the prevalence of HAI, while the second goal was to describe the antibiotic consumption at our University Hospital, ?P. Giaccone? in Palermo, Italy. Methods. A standardized methodology for a combined Point Prevalence Survey (PPS) on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospital developed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) was piloted across Europe. The teaching Hospital ?P. Giaccone? in Palermo, Italy, participated in the study Results. Out of 32…
Baseline prediction of combination therapy outcome in hepatitis C virus 1b infected patients by discriminant analysis using viral and host factors.
2010
Background Current treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has limited efficacy −especially among genotype 1 infected patients−, is costly, and involves severe side effects. Thus, predicting non-response is of major interest for both patient wellbeing and health care expense. At present, treatment cannot be individualized on the basis of any baseline predictor of response. We aimed to identify pre-treatment clinical and virological parameters associated with treatment failure, as well as to assess whether therapy outcome could be predicted at baseline. Methodology Forty-three HCV subtype 1b (HCV-1b) chronically infected patients treated with pegylated-interferon alpha plus ri…
Anti-Acne Activity of Italian Medicinal Plants Used for Skin Infection
2016
Propionibacterium acnes is implicated in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris, which impacts >85% of teenagers. Novel therapies are in high demand and an ethnopharmacological approach to discovering new plant sources of anti-acne therapeutics could contribute to filling this void in effective therapies. The aims of our study were two-fold: (1) To determine if species identified in ethnopharmacological field studies as having traditional uses for skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) exhibit significantly more activity against P. acnes than species with no such reported use; and (2) Chemically characterize active extracts and assess their suitability for future investigation. Extracts of Ita…
Antibiotic Resistance of Gram Negatives isolates from loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the central Mediterranean Sea
2009
Previous studies on fish and marine mammals support the hypothesis that marine species harbor antibiotic resistance and therefore may serve as reservoirs for anti biotic-resistance genetic determinants. The aim of this study was to assess the resistance to antimicrobial agents of Gram negative strains isolated from loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). Oral and cloacal swabs from 19 live-stranded loggerhead sea turtles, with hooks fixed into the gut, were analyzed. The antimicrobial resistance of the isolates to 31 antibiotics was assessed using the disk-diffusion method. Conventional biochemical tests identified Citrobacter spp., Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp., Escherichia spp., Provi…
Antimicrobial activity of biogenically produced spherical Se-nanomaterials embedded in organic material against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphyloco…
2017
In an effort to prevent the formation of pathogenic biofilms on hydroxyapatite (HA)-based clinical devices and surfaces, we present a study evaluating the antimicrobial efficacy of Spherical biogenic Se-Nanostructures Embedded in Organic material (Bio Se-NEMO-S) produced by Bacillus mycoides SelTE01 in comparison with two different chemical selenium nanoparticle (SeNP) classes. These nanomaterials have been studied as potential antimicrobials for eradication of established HA-grown biofilms, for preventing biofilm formation on HA-coated surfaces and for inhibition of planktonic cell growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCTC 12934 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. Bio Se-NEMO resulted more e…
Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing on blood cultures using MALDI-TOF MS
2018
International audience; Antibiotic resistance is a major public health problem requiring the early optimization of antibiotic prescriptions. Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been shown to accurately identify bacteria from positive blood culture. Here, we developed a rapid detection of Escherichia coli resistance to amoxicillin (AMX) and cefotaxime (CTX) from positive blood culture based on MALDI-TOF MS. Potential sparing of broad-spectrum antibiotics was also evaluated. We tested 103 E. coli-positive blood cultures. Blood cultures were subculture 1-hour in antibiotic-free rich liquid media before further incubation with and with…