Search results for "virulence"

Pathophysiology of Campylobacter jejuni infections of humans.

2000

Campylobacter jejuni and closely related organisms are major causes of human bacterial enteritis. These infections can lead to extraintestinal disease and severe long-term complications. Of these, neurological damage, apparently due to the immune response of the host, is the most striking. This review examines current knowledge of the pathophysiology of the organism. Diversity of C. jejuni isolates in genotypic and phenotypic characteristics now is recognized and clinically relevant examples are presented. Expected future directions are outlined.

Candida-associated denture stomatitis

2010

Candida albicans is a dimorphic yeast strongly gram positive able to live as normal commensal organism in the oral cavity of healthy people. It is the yeast more frequently isolated in the oral cavity. Under local and systemic factors related to the host conditions, it becomes virulent and responsible of oral diseases known as oral candidiasis. It has been shown that the presence of denture is a predisposing factor to the onset of pathologies related to C. albicans. Clinical studies have shown that C. albicans is not only able to adhere to the mucous surfaces, but also to stick to the acrylic resins of the dental prostheses. Both the plaque accumulated on the denture and the poor oral hygie…

GTPases of the Rho Subfamily Are Required for Brucella abortus Internalization in Nonprofessional Phagocytes

2001

Members of the genus Brucella are intracellular -Proteobacteria responsible for brucellosis, a chronic disease of humans and animals. Little is known about Brucella virulence mechanisms, but the abilities of these bacteria to invade and to survive within cells are decisive factors for causing disease. Transmission electron and fluorescence microscopy of infected nonprofessional phagocytic HeLa cells revealed minor membrane changes accompanied by discrete recruitment of F-actin at the site of Brucella abortus entry. Cell uptake of B. abortus was negatively affected to various degrees by actin, actin-myosin, and microtubule chemical inhibitors. Modulators of MAPKs and protein-tyrosine kinases…

Targeting the Sortase A Transpeptidase to Tackle Gram-positive Pathogens

2013

The virulence factors include the cell-wall associated proteins called MSCRAMMs (microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules) that can promote the adhesion to host proteins, for example, the fibronectin that is very common in host tissues. The cellwall associated proteins are necessary for host colonization, invasion, immune evasion and biofilm formation [4]. The biofilms, multistratified bacterial communities that grow on a biological or artificial surface, are responsible for chronic infectious diseases and for device or biomaterial associated infections, and are more resistant to host immune defence system and to conventional antibiotics [5].

The Future of Antibiotic: From the Magic Bullet to the Smart Bullet

2014

α-L-rhamnosidases: Old and New Insights

2007

L-Rhamnose is a component of plant cell wall pectic polysaccharides (Mutter et al., 1994; Ridley et al., 2001), glycoproteins (Haruko and Haruko, 1999) and secondary metabolites such as anthocyanins (Renault et al., 1997), flavonoids (Bar-Peled et al., 1991) and triterpenoids (Friedman and McDonald, 1997). It has also been found in bacterial heteropolysaccharides (Hashimoto and Murata, 1998), rhamnolipids (Ochsner et al., 1994) and in the repeating units of the O-antigen structure of the lipopolysaccharide component of bacterial outer membranes (Chua et al., 1999). Some rhamnosides are important bioactive compounds, e.g. cytotoxic saponins (Bader et al., 1998; Yu et al., 2002), antifungal p…

Absorption of kininogen from human plasma by Streptococcus pyogenes is followed by the release of bradykinin.

1997

H-kininogen (high-molecular-mass kininogen, HK) is the precursor of the vasoactive peptide hormone bradykinin (BK). Previous work has demonstrated that HK binds to Streptococcus pyogenesthrough M-proteins, fibrous surface proteins and important virulence factors of these bacteria. Here we find that M-protein-expressing bacteria absorb HK from human plasma. The HK bound to the bacteria was found to be cleaved, and analysis of the degradation pattern suggested that the cleavage of HK at the bacterial surface is associated with the release of BK. Moreover, addition of activated plasma prekallikrein to bacteria preincubated with human plasma, resulted in BK release. This mechanism, by which a p…

Occurrence of glycine in the core oligosaccharides of Hafnia alvei lipopolysaccharides--identification of disubstituted glycoform.

2015

Endotoxins (lipopolysaccharides, LPS) are the main surface antigens and virulence factors of Gram-negative bacteria involved for example in the development of nosocomial infections and sepsis. They consist of three main regions: O-specific polysaccharide, core oligosaccharide, and lipid A. Bacteria modify LPS structure to escape the immune defence, but also to adapt to environmental conditions. LPS's structures are highly diversified in the O-specific polysaccharide region to evade bactericidal factors of immune system, but retain some common epitopes that are potential candidates for therapeutic strategies against bacterial infections. Common occurrence of glycine within the structure of L…

Novel Sortase A Inhibitors to Counteract Gram-Positive Bacterial Biofilms

2019

Sortase A (SrtA) is a membrane enzyme responsible for the covalent anchoring of surface proteins on the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria. Nowadays it is considered an interesting target for the development of new anti-infective drugs which aim to interfere with important Gram-positive virulence mechanisms. Along the years, we studied the anti-staphylococcal and anti-biofilm activity of some natural and synthetic polyhalogenated pyrrolic compounds, called pyrrolomycins. Some of them were active on Gram-positive pathogens at a μg/mL range of concentration (1.5-0.045 μg/mL) and showed a biofilm inhibition in the range of 50-80%. [1-3] In light of these encouraging results, herein we present…

Novel host-specific iron acquisition system in the zoonotic pathogenVibrio vulnificus

2015

Summary Vibrio vulnificus is a marine bacterium associated with human and fish (mainly farmed eels) diseases globally known as vibriosis. The ability to infect and overcome eel innate immunity relies on a virulence plasmid (pVvbt2) specific for biotype 2 (Bt2) strains. In the present study, we demonstrated that pVvbt2 encodes a host-specific iron acquisition system that depends on an outer membrane receptor for eel transferrin called Vep20. The inactivation of vep20 did not affect either bacterial growth in human plasma or virulence for mice, while bacterial growth in eel blood/plasma was abolished and virulence for eels was significantly impaired. Furthermore, vep20 is an iron-regulated ge…