Taxonomy and nomenclature of bacteria with clinical and scientific importance: current concepts for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists

Taxonomy is the science of the classification of various living organisms consisting of three independent, but interrelated disciplines, namely classification, nomenclature and identification. With the advent of molecular biological methods and sequencing, a revolution is currently occurring with regards to the reporting of novel taxa and changes in the taxonomy of already described bacterial species. The applications of taxonomic changes can be broad ranging: they may impact the clinical care of patients, through variations in choosing the appropriate antimicrobial susceptibility testing standards or data interpretation, or even their clinical relevance and epidemiology. The aim of this paper was to aid healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical scientists to navigate through the ‘maze’ of bacterial taxonomy, and to aid in finding authentic information regarding the description of taxonomic changes and to present some examples of changes in bacterial taxonomy which have proven to be clinically significant

A bibliometric analysis of Acta Pharmaceutica Hungarica (1965-2018)

Aims: The aim of this study is present a general overview of the journal from 1965 to 2018 using bibliometric indicators. Methods: The data analyzed in this study, was extracted from the Scopus database. The information was exported in RIS file format to the Harzing’s Publish or Perish and VOSviewer software for data analysis. Results: The number of documents published in APH during the study period was 1868, the most frequently published document type was „original article”. Articles published APH were cited 2555 times overall, averaging 1.37 citations per each paper. The highest number of articles published in collaboration was in 2007 and 2018 (16.7%). Overall, the period between 1981-2000 was the most fruitful, while the following years saw a decline in the number of articles. Clusters and co-occurrence networks of the authors keyowrds of the published documents were generated. Conclusion: APH manages to reach a very wide audience of the Hungarian scientific community of researchers. Additionally, an evolution on the research topics covered by the journal could be observed, providing a contemporary overview of the pharmaceutical sciences. The submission of additional articles to the journal is highly encouraged to widen the reach of this journal towards international audiences

Standard operating procedure (SOP) for disk diffusion-based quorum sensing inhibition assays

Introduction: The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial strains is a severe global health issue, which is worsened by the inability of new antibiotics. Virulence inhibition is one of the novel strategies that have been proposed to combat bacterial pathogens more effectively, without the risk of exerting selection pressure on these microorganisms. Inhibition of bacterial cell-cell communication (quorum sensing; QS) is a promising approach however, rapid and cost-effective screening for compounds with QS-inhibitory activity is not yet well-established. Aims: The aim of the present study is to determine the ideal experimental conditions for the disk-diffusion based QSinhibitory assay with the most frequently used QS-signal molecule-producing and reporter strains. Methods: In our study, the effects of growth characteristics, incubation time, temperature and the used culture media were studied on the used bacterial strains and results of the disk-diffusion based QS-inhibitory assay. Results: Based on our results, the ideal experimental setting includes a modified Luria-Bertani medium (LB*; complemented with nutrients and microelements), incubation at room temperature (25 °C) for 48 hours before the reading of results, where the density of the starting inocula has less influence of the results of the assay. Conclusion: Establishing standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a way to help carry out various operations, aiming to increase precision and efficiency. Adherence to the experimental settings defined based on our results may aid in improving the reproducibility, comparability and reliability of results obtained by this method

Non-antibiotic pharmaceutical agents as antibiotic adjuvants

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a global public health issue, which severely hinders clinicians in providing patients with adequate antimicrobial treatment regimens. The strategy of drug repurposing is an emerging strategy in antimicrobial chemotherapy, during which new pharmacological uses are identified for drugs already approved. The aim of our present study was to assess the adjuvant properties of several existing and widely-used pharmacological agents against bacteria in combination with reference antibiotics. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, S. epidermidis ATCC 12228, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 700603 were selected for our experiments. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the tested compounds were determined using the broth microdilution method, while a MIC reduction assay was performed to ascertain the effect of the tested compounds on the MICs of standard antibiotics (ciprofl oxacin and gentamicin). Eight tested compounds (namely atorvastatin, celecoxib, clotrimazole, diclofenac-epolamine, ivermectin, lidocaine, mebendazole and terbinafine) showed antibacterial activity on the tested bacterial strains and several agents presented with various degrees of adjuvant (MIC-reducing) properties. Further experiments involving the screening of additional pharmaceutical compounds for their secondary antibacterial and adjuvant properties are warranted

Epidemiology and species distribution of anaerobic Gram-negative cocci: a 10-year retrospective survey (2008-2017)

Introduction: The group of anaerobic Gram-negative cocci (AGNC) includes the genera Veillonella, Megasphaera, Anaeroglobus, Negativicoccus and Acidaminococcus. These bacteria are an integral part of the microbiome of humans but may be causative agents in various infectious processes. The available data on the epidemiology and significance of AGNCs is scarce. Aims: To assess and compare the prevalence of different species of AGNCs among inpatients and outpatients at the Albert Szent-Györgyi Clinical Center retrospectively, during a 10-year study period. Methods: Isolates containing AGNC were identified retrospectively by reviewing the online microbiology records of the Institute of Clinical Microbiology. Results: The median age of affected patients overall was 52 years (range: 1–90 years), with a male dominance. 59.79% of samples originated from inpatients. 572 individual AGNCs isolates were recovered from clinical samples, most of the isolated GNACs were Veillonella spp. (95.28%), Megasphaera and Acidaminococcus species accounted for a minority of isolates (2.79% and 1.93%, respectively), while Anaeroglobus and Negativicoccus species were not isolated. In the second half of the study period (2013-2017), 91.31% of isolates were identified on the species level (p<0.001) using MALDI-TOF MS. Conclusion: The current study represents a long-term surveillance study on the isolation frequency and trends among anaerobic Gram-negative cocci (AGNCs), isolated in the Southern Great Plain of Hungary, highlighting the beneficial effect of MALDI-TOF MS on the diagnostic efficacy of the laboratorie