Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis UL719 et la nisine : une nouvelle approche dans le traitement des infections à Clostridium difficile

Clostridium difficile est le microorganisme le plus fréquemment identifié dans les pathologies entériques pour des patients souffrants de coliques pseudomembraneuses et de diarrhées associées aux antibiotiques. Les drogues les plus communément utilisées pour traiter les maladies associées à C. difficile sont limitées au métronidazole et à la vancomycine puisque de nombreuses souches isolées cliniquement de C. difficile sont résistantes à de nombreux antibiotiques couramment utilisés pour traiter des infections à bactéries Gram positif. La recherche de nouveaux traitements pour limiter l’incidence de C. difficile demeure une urgence pour le secteur de la santé. L’usage de probiotiques, particulièrement de bactéries lactiques métaboliquement actives, a récemment été proposé à la communauté médicale comme une alternative. Dans ce contexte, le but de cette étude est d’évaluer la capacité de la bactérie lactique Lactococcus lactis UL719 et la nisine à inhiber C. difficile dans les conditions intestinales. Dans un premier temps, l’activité antibactérienne de la nisine contre des souches cliniques de C. difficile a montré que la nisine était active à des concentrations minimales d’inhibition comprises entre 0,8 et 51,2 µg/mL dépendamment des souches. De plus, la nisine est capable d’inhiber la germination des spores de C. difficile. Suite à ces résultats, la survie de la souche productrice de nisine, L. lactis UL719 et la stabilité physicochimique de la nisine ont été évaluées à l’aide d’un simulateur du tractus gastro-intestinal. Les résultats ont démontré la capacité de la souche productrice de nisine à survivre au tractus gastro-intestinal avec un taux de survie de 0,5 % et, malgré les conditions de stress gastro-intestinal, à garder la capacité à produire sa bactériocine. Par contre, la nisine seule perdait son activité antimicrobienne suite à son passage dans le duodénum. Finalement, quand l’activité antimicrobienne a été évaluée dans un modèle in vitro de fermentation colique simulant les conditions physiologiques intestinales, L. lactis UL719 n’a pas d’effet sur C. difficile mais la nisine a montré une inhibition totale de ce pathogène. Il a aussi été observé que la nisine avait un léger effet inhibant sur la population bactérienne à Gram-positif dans le modèle colique in vitro humain mais l’effet est temporaire.Clostridium difficile is the most frequently identified enteric pathogen in patients with nosocomial antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. The most common drugs used to treat diseases associated with C. difficile are limited to metronidazole and vancomycin since most clinically isolated C. difficile strains are resistant to many antibiotics currently used to treat Gram-positive bacterial infections. The search for new treatments to limit the impact of C. difficile becomes an urgent need for the health sector. The use of probiotics, particularly metabolically active lactic acid bacteria, was recently proposed as an alternative for the medical community. In this context, the aim of the study was to investigate the capacity of the lactic acid bacteria Lactococcus lactis UL719 and nisin to inhibit C. difficile in intestinal conditions. First, the antibacterial activity of nisin against clinical strains of C. difficile showed that it was active with minimum inhibitory concentrations between 0.8 and 51.2 µg/mL, depending on the strains. In addition, nisin was able to inhibit spore germination of C. difficile. Given these results, the survival of the nisin-producing strain, L. lactis UL719 and the physicochemical stability of nisin were evaluated using a simulator of the gastrointestinal tract. The results demonstrated the ability of the nisin producing strain to survive the gastrointestinal tract with a 0.5 % survival rate and, despite the conditions of gastrointestinal stress, to keep its ability to produce the bacteriocin. However, the nisin alone lost its antimicrobial activity after its passage through the duodenum. Finally, when the antimicrobial activity was evaluated in an in vitro model of colic fermentation simulating physiological intestinal conditions, L. lactis UL719 had no effect on C. difficile, but nisin showed a complete inhibition of this pathogen. It was also observed that nisin had a slight inhibitory effect on the Gram-positive bacterial population in the in vitro human colic model, but the effect was temporary

Hydrogen Storage in High Surface Area Carbon Nanotubes Produced by Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition

Carbon nanotubes, mostly single- and double-walled, are prepared by a catalytic chemical vapor deposition method using H2-CH4 atmospheres with different CH4 contents. The maximum hydrogen storage at room temperatures and 10 MPa is 0.5 wt %. Contrary to expectations, purification of the carbon nanotube specimens by oxidative acid treatments or by heating in inert gas decreases the hydrogen storage. Decreasing the residual catalyst content does not necessarily lead to an increase in ASH. Moreover, increasing the specific surface area does not necessarily increase the hydrogen storage capacity. There seems to be a correlation between the pore volume at low pore diameters (<3 nm) and the hydrogen storage capacity. Contribution from nanoscale disordered carbon to the hydrogen storage cannot be ruled out

BACTIBASE second release: a database and tool platform for bacteriocin characterization

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>BACTIBASE is an integrated open-access database designed for the characterization of bacterial antimicrobial peptides, commonly known as bacteriocins.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>For its second release, BACTIBASE has been expanded and equipped with additional functions aimed at both casual and power users. The number of entries has been increased by 44% and includes data collected from published literature as well as high-throughput datasets. The database provides a manually curated annotation of bacteriocin sequences. Improvements brought to BACTIBASE include incorporation of various tools for bacteriocin analysis, such as homology search, multiple sequence alignments, Hidden Markov Models, molecular modelling and retrieval through our taxonomy Browser.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The provided features should make BACTIBASE a useful tool in food preservation or food safety applications and could have implications for the development of new drugs for medical use. BACTIBASE is available at <url>http://bactibase.pfba-lab-tun.org</url>.</p

Regenerating islet-derived protein 3α : A promising therapy for diabetes. Preliminary data in rodents and in humans

Publisher Copyright: © 2022The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that administration of Regenerating islet-derived protein 3α (Reg3α), a protein described as having protective effects against oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory activity, could participate in the control of glucose homeostasis and potentially be a new target of interest in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. To that end the recombinant human Reg3α protein was administered for one month in insulin-resistant mice fed high fat diet. We performed glucose and insulin tolerance tests, assayed circulating chemokines in plasma and measured glucose uptake in insulin sensitive tissues. We evidenced an increase in insulin sensitivity during an oral glucose tolerance test in ALF-5755 treated mice vs controls and decreased the pro-inflammatory cytokine C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5 (CXCL5). We also demonstrated an increase in glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Finally, correlation studies using human and mouse muscle biopsies showed negative correlation between intramuscular Reg3α mRNA expression (or its murine isoform Reg3γ) and insulin resistance. Thus, we have established the proof of concept that Reg3α could be a novel molecule of interest in the treatment of T2D by increasing insulin sensitivity via a skeletal muscle effect.Peer reviewe

Establishment of the nasal microbiota in the first 18 months of life: Correlation with early-onset rhinitis and wheezing.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic establishment of the nasal microbiota in early life influences local mucosal immune responses and susceptibility to childhood respiratory disorders. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case-control study was to monitor, evaluate, and compare development of the nasal microbiota of infants with rhinitis and wheeze in the first 18 months of life with those of healthy control subjects. METHODS: Anterior nasal swabs of 122 subjects belonging to the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort were collected longitudinally over 7 time points in the first 18 months of life. Nasal microbiota signatures were analyzed by using 16S rRNA multiplexed pair-end sequencing from 3 clinical groups: (1) patients with rhinitis alone (n = 28), (2) patients with rhinitis with concomitant wheeze (n = 34), and (3) healthy control subjects (n = 60). RESULTS: Maturation of the nasal microbiome followed distinctive patterns in infants from both rhinitis groups compared with control subjects. Bacterial diversity increased over the period of 18 months of life in control infants, whereas infants with rhinitis showed a decreasing trend (P < .05). An increase in abundance of the Oxalobacteraceae family (Proteobacteria phylum) and Aerococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum) was associated with rhinitis and concomitant wheeze (adjusted P < .01), whereas the Corynebacteriaceae family (Actinobacteria phylum) and early colonization with the Staphylococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum; 3 weeks until 9 months) were associated with control subjects (adjusted P < .05). The only difference between the rhinitis and control groups was a reduced abundance of the Corynebacteriaceae family (adjusted P < .05). Determinants of nasal microbiota succession included sex, mode of delivery, presence of siblings, and infant care attendance. CONCLUSION: Our results support the hypothesis that the nasal microbiome is involved in development of early-onset rhinitis and wheeze in infants

Mise en évidence et caractrisation in vitro de l'activité antifongique de la nisine Z, une bactériocine produite par Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis UL719, sur Candida albicans

Candida albicans est l'espèce la plus communément identifiée dans les pathologies fongiques buccales. Les traitements des infections à C. albicans se font par le biais d'antifongiques. L'efficacité des antifongiques est cependant limitée aux formes prolifératives et non aux formes stationnaires de C. albicans. De plus, plusieurs cas de résistance de C. albicans aux antifongiques ont été rapportés. Par conséquent, trouver une nouvelle molécule antifongique a toute son importance pour le traitement des cas de candidoses. Le but de cette étude est d'évaluer l'activité fongicide de la nisine Z. Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé l'effet de la nisine sur l'inhibition de C. albicans en utilisant la méthode de l' "Alamar blue". L'efficacité de la nisine Z, à bloquer la transformation de C. albicans de la forme blastospore à la forme hyphe (plus virulente), a été évaluée par observation microscopique et par dénombrement des différentes formes. Nos résultats montrent que la nisine Z inhibe la croissance de C. albicans avec des pourcentages d'inhibition de 70, 63 et 53 % pour des concentrations respectives de 1000, 500 et 100 mu/ml. Cependant, seule la concentration de 1000 mu/ml permet de réduire de 45 % la transformation de C. albicans par rapport au contrôle. Ces résultats sont confirmés par l'observation microscopique. En conclusion, la nisine Z réduit la prolifération et la transformation de C. albicans, suggérant sa potentielle utilisation pour le traitement de.s candidoses

Astronomie « ancienne » et historiographie dans l'Encyclopédie

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Astronomie « ancienne » et historiographie dans l'Encyclopédie

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« Il faut une théorie de la coopération, du travail vivant individuel et collectif. » Entretien avec Christophe Dejours,

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