Search results for "Medical Microbiology"
showing 10 items of 181 documents
Microbiome restoration diet improves digestion, cognition and physical and emotional wellbeing
2017
Manipulating gut bacteria in the microbiome, through the use of probiotics and prebiotics, has been found to have an influence on both physical and emotional wellbeing. This study uses a dietary manipulation 'The Gut Makeover' designed to elicit positive changes to the gut bacteria within the microbiome. 21 healthy participants undertook 'The Gut Makeover' for a four week period. Weight and various aspects of health were assessed pre and post intervention using the Functional Medicine Medical Symptoms Questionnaire (MSQ). Paired sample t-tests revealed a significant reduction in self-reported weight at the end of the intervention. Adverse medical symptoms related to digestion, cognition and…
Microbiological testing of adults hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia: an international study
2018
This study aimed to describe real-life microbiological testing of adults hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and to assess concordance with the 2007 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)/American Thoracic Society (ATS) and 2011 European Respiratory Society (ERS) CAP guidelines. This was a cohort study based on the Global Initiative for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia (GLIMP) database, which contains point-prevalence data on adults hospitalised with CAP across 54 countries during 2015. In total, 3702 patients were included. Testing was performed in 3217 patients, and included blood culture (71.1%), sputum culture (61.8%), Legionella urinary anti…
Mechanical ventilation alters the development of staphylococcus aureus pneumonia in rabbit
2016
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is common during mechanical ventilation (MV). Beside obvious deleterious effects on muco-ciliary clearance, MV could adversely shift the host immune response towards a pro-inflammatory pattern through toll-like receptor (TLRs) up-regulation. We tested this hypothesis in a rabbit model of Staphylococcus aureus VAP. Pneumonia was caused by airway challenge with S. aureus, in either spontaneously breathing (SB) or MV rabbits (n = 13 and 17, respectively). Pneumonia assessment regarding pulmonary and systemic bacterial burden, as well as inflammatory response was done 8 and 24 hours after S. aureus challenge. In addition, ex vivo stimulations of whole blood…
Linezolid and atorvastatin impact on pneumonia caused by Staphyloccocus aureus in rabbits with or without mechanical ventilation
2017
International audience; Pneumonia may involve methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), with elevated rates of antibiotics failure. The present study aimed to assess the effect of statins given prior to pneumonia development. Spontaneously breathing (SB) or mechanically ventilated (MV) rabbits with pneumonia received atorvastatin alone, linezolid (LNZ) alone, or a combination of both (n = 5 in each group). Spontaneously breathing and MV untreated infected animals (n = 11 in each group), as well as uninfected animals (n = 5 in each group) were used as controls. Microbiological features and inflammation were evaluated. Data are presented as medians (interquartile range). Linezolid a…
Sentinel hospital-based surveillance for norovirus infection in children with gastroenteritis between 2015 and 2016 in Italy
2018
Noroviruses are one of the leading causes of gastro-enteric diseases worldwide in all age groups. Novel epidemic noroviruses with GII.P16 polymerase and GII.2 or GII.4 capsid type have emerged worldwide in late 2015 and in 2016. We performed a molecular epidemiological study of the noroviruses circulating in Italy to investigate the emergence of new norovirus strains. Sentinel hospital-based surveillance, in three different Italian regions, revealed increased prevalence of norovirus infection in children (<15 years) in 2016 (14.4% versus 9.8% in 2015) and the emergence of GII.P16 strains in late 2016, which accounted for 23.0% of norovirus infections. The majority of the strains with a GII.…
Identification of a large, fast-expanding HIV-1 subtype B transmission cluster among MSM in Valencia, Spain
2017
We describe and characterize an exceptionally large HIV-1 subtype B transmission cluster occurring in the Comunidad Valenciana (CV, Spain). A total of 1806 HIV-1 protease-reverse transcriptase (PR/RT) sequences from different patients were obtained in the CV between 2004 and 2014. After subtyping and generating a phylogenetic tree with additional HIV-1 subtype B sequences, a very large transmission cluster which included almost exclusively sequences from the CV was detected (n = 143 patients). This cluster was then validated and characterized with further maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analyses and Bayesian coalescent reconstructions. With these analyses, the CV cluster was delimited to 11…
Cosavirus, Salivirus and Bufavirus in Diarrheal Tunisian Infants
2016
International audience; Three newly discovered viruses have been recently described in diarrheal patients: Cosa-virus (CosV) and Salivirus (SalV), two picornaviruses, and Bufavirus (BuV), a parvovirus. The detection rate and the role of these viruses remain to be established in acute gastroen-teritis (AGE) in diarrheal Tunisian infants. From October 2010 through March 2012, stool samples were collected from 203 children <5 years-old suffering from AGE and attending the Children's Hospital in Monastir, Tunisia. All samples were screened for CosV, SalV and BuV as well as for norovirus (NoV) and group A rotavirus (RVA) by molecular biology. Positive samples for the three screened viruses were …
Impact of PNPLA3 and IFNL3 polymorphisms on hepatic steatosis in Asian patients with chronic hepatitis C.
2017
Background and aims A recent meta-analysis revealed that the genotype PNPLA3 rs738409 GG is associated with a higher risk of hepatic steatosis (HS) in Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). However, controversial results were found regarding Asian populations. Furthermore, previous studies have shown a negative association between interferon lambda 3 (IFNL3) rs12979860 CC and HS in Caucasian CHC patients, but there have been no reports indicating any such association in Asian populations. In this study, then, we investigated the association of PNPLA3 and IFNL3 polymorphisms with HS in Asian CHC patients. Methods We enrolled consecutive CHC patients who underwent liver biopsy pri…
Temporal variation in the distribution of type-1 human astrovirus lineages in a settled population over 14 years.
2016
Human astroviruses (HAstVs) are important enteric pathogens that are genetically and antigenically heterogeneous and can be classified into eight sero/genotypes (HAstV-1 to -8) and different lineages within each HAstV type. This study describes the genetic diversity of HAstVs circulating in southern Italy over 14 years. Molecular analysis of HAstV-1 strains showed that three different lineages (1a, 1b and 1d) of the predominant genotype were circulating during the study period. The study of an archival collection of HAstV strains offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the patterns of variation of HAstV infections over the years and to correlate the observed epidemiological changes to the g…
Characterization of Bacillus thuringiensis isolates by their insecticidal activity and their production of Cry and Vip3 proteins.
2018
WOS: 000449027600099 PubMed ID: 30383811 Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) constitutes the active ingredient of many successful bioinsecticides used in agriculture. In the present study, the genetic diversity and toxicity of Bt isolates was investigated by characterization of native isolates originating from soil, fig leaves and fruits from a Turkish collection. Among a total of 80 Bt isolates, 18 of them were found carrying a vip3 gene (in 23% of total), which were further selected. Insecticidal activity of spore/crystal mixtures and their supernatants showed that some of the Bt isolates had significantly more toxicity against some lepidopteran species than the HD1 reference strain. Five isolate…