Urinary tract infection due to beta-lactams-resistant Staphylococcus warneri: A case report

Staphylococcus warneri, similarly to other coagulase-negatine Staphylococcus (CoNS), is a commensal of the skin, mucous membranes, nasal cavities and mouth of humans, found in 50% of the population. This species usually represents less than 1% of the total staphylococcal skin population. S. warneri can potentially cause severe infections usually in immunocompromised individuals, even more in combination with the presence of indwelling devices and/or implants. The key treatment for such infections is the removal of the device. Sometimes, even in the absence of a foreign body, Staphylococcus warneri may be implicated as the causative agent of an infection in immunocompetent patients. We report here a case of chronic urinary tract infection in adult healthy patient caused by S.warneri, its clinical significance and resistant to commonly used beta-lactams

Rancang Bangun Alat Pereduksi Particulate Matter (PM) Gas Buang Mesin Diesel Dengan Metode Cyclone

Gas buang dari hasil proses pembakaran berpengaruh terhadap pencemaran udara dan lingkungan khususnya motor diesel. Proses pembakaran bahan bakar pada motor bakar menghasilkan gas buang yang mengandung unsur Nitrogen Oksida (NOx), Sulfur Oksida (SOx), Particulate Matter (PM), Karbon Monoksida (CO), dan Hidrokarbon (HC) yang bersifat mencemari udara. Agar motor diesel yang digunakan tidak mengakibatkan pencemaran udara berlebih, perlu dilakukan suatu penelitian menurunkan emisi gas buang motor diesel dengan pemilihan teknologi dan metode yang tepat. Penelitian cylone separator ini berdasarkan prinsip kerja separator yang memanfaatkan gaya sentrifugal dan perbedaan massa jenis. Karena massa jenis PM lebih besar dari pada massa jenis gas buang, PM akan terpisah dari gas buang karena gaya sentrifugal dan adanya perbedaan massa jenis. Pada tahap awal penelitian ini yaitu dibuat desain dan kemudian dilakukan CFD analisis untuk dicari yang paling efisien dari segi kecepatan dan jenis aliran. Pada hasil analisa CFD disimpulkan bahwa metode Perry lebih efisien dibanding 3 metode yang lain. Setelah didapat desain yang efisien maka dilanjutkan dengan pembuatan prototipe, untuk selanjutnya dilakukan uji ekperimen. Berdasar uji eksperimen, cyclone separator dapar mereduksi PM gas Buang motor diesel pada beban 2000 watt sebesar 8,71%. Sedangkan pada beban 2500 watt, cylone separator dapat mereduksi PM sebesar 34,49%

Enigma of Respiratory Carriage of Kingella kingae and Neisseria meningitides in Young Jordanian Children

Background: Kingella kingae and Neisseria meningitides are gram-negative bacteria, causing several life-threatening diseases and considered as opportunistic pathogens in the upper respiratory tract of healthy carriers. The detection of these both bacteria species is difficult in routine culture methods. Objective: This study aimed to find the occurrence rate of K. kingae and N. meningitides colonizing upper respiratory tract of young Jordanian children, and to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates. Methods: A total of 300 samples of throat and nasal swabs were collected from out- patients Jordanian children aged between 6 months and 5 years, who were admitted to Pediatrics' clinics department at the Jordan University Hospital and Al-Bashir Hospital over the period October 2018 through January 2019.  Samples were cultured for detection  K. kingae and Neisseria species including specially N. meningitides.    Their suspected growth was identified and tested using microbiology culture methods and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Additionally, DNA was extracted directly from one 100 samples and was investigated only for K. kingae using real- time PCR assay.                                                                                              Results: This study showed the absence of K. kingae in all cultured samples, while Neisseriaspecies was detected in 21 (7 %)including one N. meningitides isolate(0.3%). The results of antibiotic susceptibility testing indicated presence of few percentage of Neisseria species isolates resistant 100 % to clindamycin, oxacillin and vancomycin, whereas all were susceptible for chloramphenicol (100%)levofloxacin and gentamycin , and less to ampicillin(90.6%) and erytromycin ( 85.7%), respectively. Conclusion: This study shows the absence of K. kingae and the rare occurrence of N. meningitides colonizing the upper respiratory tract of young Jordanian children over the 4-month period of study. &nbsp

Experience of a 40-day (6 week) LMWH treatment for isolated distal deep vein thrombosis.

Clinical significance of distal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is important as it can potentially result in pulmonary embolism (PE), DVT extension, DVT recurrence and post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). Controversy remains about the necessity and modalities of anticoagulation in all distal DVT. Evaluation of the efficiency of a 40-day weight-based low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) treatment in a cohort of 119 consecutive patients with distal DVT. Compression ultrasonography of the lower limb was performed initially for diagnosis as well as at the end of the treatment to identify persistence or resolution of the blood clot. A 3-month follow-up estimated the rates of PE, DVT recurrence, DVT extension, PTS and bleeding. Risk factors for DVT were considered to evaluate a possible correlation between them and the outcomes. In 71.4% of the patients the blood clot was totally dissolved and thrombus persistence was statistically associated with the number of initially involved veins. DVT recurrence occurred in 5% of patients and was also associated with the number of initial clotted veins. DVT extension and PTS rates were present in 1.7% and 3.4% respectively and no patient was diagnosed with PE or bleeding. This retrospective study including a limited number of patients and no control group supports that a 40-day weight-based LMWH treatment after distal DVT seems to be efficient when one single vein is initially affected whereas for multiple vein distal DVT and to avoid potential DVT recurrence, longer than 6 weeks of anticoagulant treatment is required. Our results support safety of the treatment, its potential to prevent DVT extension and the occurrence of PE

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Mutational Pattern in the Fourth Pandemic Phase in Greece

The aim of this study is to investigate the circulating variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from Athens and from rural areas in Greece during July and August 2021. We also present a rapid review of literature regarding significant SARS-CoV-2 mutations and their impact on public health. A total of 2500 nasopharyngeal swab specimens were collected from suspected COVID-19 cases (definition by WHO 2021b). Viral nucleic acid extraction was implemented using an automatic extractor and the RNA recovered underwent qRT-PCR in order to characterize the specimens as positive or negative for SARS-CoV-2. The positive specimens were then used to identify specific Spike gene mutations and characterize the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. For this step, various kits were utilized. From the 2500 clinical specimens, 220 were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 indicating a prevalence of 8.8% among suspected cases. The RT-PCR Ct (Cycle threshold) Value ranged from 19 to 25 which corresponds to medium to high copy numbers of the virus in the positive samples. From the 220 positive specimens 148 (67.3%) were from Athens and 72 (32.7%) from Greek rural areas. As far as the Spike mutations investigated: N501Y appeared in all the samples, D614G mutation appeared in 212 (96.4%) samples with a prevalence of 87.2% in Athens and 98.6% in the countryside, E484K had a prevalence of 10.8% and 12.5% in Athens and the rural areas, respectively. K417N was found in 18 (12.2%) samples from Athens and four (5.6%) from the countryside, P681H was present in 51 (34.5%) Athenian specimens and 14 (19.4%) specimens from rural areas, HV69-70 was carried in 32.4% and 19.4% of the samples from Athens and the countryside, respectively. P681R had a prevalence of 87.2% in Athens and 98.6% in rural areas, and none of the specimens carried the L452R mutation. 62 (28.2%) samples carried the N501Y, P681H, D614G and HV69-70 mutations simultaneously and the corresponding variant was characterized as the Alpha (UK) variant (B 1.1.7). Only six (2.7%) samples from the center of Athens had the N501Y, E484K, K417N and D614G mutations simultaneously and the virus responsible was characterized as the Beta (South African) variant (B 1.351). Our study explored the SARS-CoV-2 variants using RT-PCR in a representative cohort of samples collected from Greece in July and August 2021. The prevalent mutations identified were N501Y (100%), D614G (96.4%), P681R (90.1%) and the variants identified were the Delta (90.1%), Alpha (28.2%) and Beta (2.7%)

The shotgun proteomic study of the human ThinPrep cervical smear using iTRAQ mass-tagging and 2D LC-FT-Orbitrap-MS: the detection of the Human Papillomavirus at the protein level

The ThinPrep cervical smear is widely used in clinical practice for the cytological and molecular screening against abnormal cells and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Current advancements made to LC–MS proteomics include the use of stable isotope labeling for the in-depth analysis of proteins in complex clinical specimens. Such approaches have yet to be realized for ThinPrep clinical specimens. In this study, an LC–MS method based on isobaric (iTRAQ) labeling and high-resolution FT-Orbitrap mass spectrometry was used for the proteomic analysis of 23 human ThinPrep smear specimens. Tandem mass spectrometry analysis was performed with both nitrogen high collision dissociation (HCD MS/MS) and helium collision induced dissociation (CID MS/MS) peptide fragmentation modes. The analysis of three 8-plex sample sets yielded the identification of over 3200 unique proteins at FDR < 1%, of which over 2300 proteins were quantitatively profiled in at least one of the three experiments. The interindividual variability served to define the required sample size needed to identify significant protein expression differences. The degree of in-depth proteome coverage allowed the detection of 6 HPV-derived proteins including the high-risk HPV16 type in the specimens tested. The presence of the HPV strains of origin was also confirmed with PCR-hybridization molecular methods. This proof-of-principle study constitutes the first ever report on the nontargeted analysis of HPV proteins in human ThinPrep clinical specimens with high-resolution mass spectrometry. A further testament to the sensitivity and selectivity of the proposed study method was the confident detection of a significant number of phosphopeptides in these specimens

Water-soluble amphotericin B-polyvinylpyrrolidone complexes with maintained antifungal activity against Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp. and reduced haemolytic and cytotoxic effects

OBJECTIVES: Poor solubility and toxicity severely hinder the clinical use of amphotericin B (AmB), in spite of its attractive chemotherapeutic properties. Water-soluble complexes of AmB and polyvinylpyrrolidone (AmB-PVP) could display lower cytotoxicity while maintaining antifungal activity. METHODS: AmB-PVP [with PVP of 10, 24 and 40 kDa (AC1, AC2 and AC4)] were compared with free AmB for (i) activity against Candida spp. (five albicans; nine non-albicans) and Aspergillus spp. (four strains), (ii) haemolysis of sheep red blood cells, and (iii) release of lactate dehydrogenase from J774 macrophages [with further comparison with free PVP and a liposomal formulation of amphotericin (AmBisome)]. RESULTS: MICs and MFCs of AC1, AC2 and AC4 against Candida spp. and of AC2 and AC4 against Aspergillus spp. were similar to those of AmB (and even lower for some Candida strains). Killing kinetics (24 h) were also similar. Haemolytic activity of AC2 and AC4 was 2-fold lower than that of free AmB. Cytotoxicity of AC2 towards J774 macrophages was 8-fold lower, and that of AC4 5-fold lower than that of AmB and not significantly different from that of AmBisome. The lower cytotoxicity of AC2, AC4 was correlated with a lower cellular accumulation of amphotericin. Spectroscopic analysis shows that the lower toxicity of AmB-PVP was not owing to significant change in the monomeric/polymeric forms ratio of the drug. CONCLUSIONS: AmB-PVP complexes compared favourably with AmB for antifungal activity, were less haemolytic and cytotoxic than AmB, and show a similar cytotoxicity profile to AmBisome

Magnetic nanoparticle-enhanced PCR for the detection and identification of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enteritidis.

This paper evaluated magnetic nanoparticle-enhanced PCR for the detection and identification of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enteritidis. Two different types of magnetic nanoparticles designated MPIO (iron concentration 2.5 mg/ml, size 1 μm) and NP (iron concentration 8.7 mg/ml, size 60 nm), both conjugated with S. aureus or S. enteritidis antibodies were evaluated as an enrichment procedure for PCR-detection of the pathogens in Trypticase Soy Broth, milk, blood and meat broth. Bacterial suspensions (1.5 x 108 cfu/ml) were prepared and serial diluted 10-1. The MPIO and NP nanoparticles were added, followed by incubation for 1 hour at room temperature, magnetic separation of the pellet, DNA extraction and PCR, targeting the femA and invA sequences. The nanoparticle-free and the NP-supplemented dilutions were positive down to the 1.5 x 102 cfu/ml concentration for both bacteria. The MPIO-supplemented dilutions were positive down to approx. 2 x 100 cfu/ml concentration, respectively. Bacteria-free TSB was negative by PCR. MPIO nanoparticles (size 1 μm) enhanced the detection of S. aureus and S. enteritidis by PCR, whilst NP nanoparticles (size 60 nm) did not, thus indicating that the size of the magnetic nanoparticles play a significant role in the enrichment procedure