Genetic and virulence characterization of colistin-resistant and colistin-sensitive A. baumannii clinical isolates.

Treatment of infections caused by A. baumannii is becoming a challenge due to the ability to develop multidrug-resistance, virulence, and high mortality. We described the colistin resistance and virulence genes present in sixA. baumannii clinical isolates using WGS, expression by qPCR, and virulence in the Galleria mellonella model. The colistin-resistant isolates were assigned as ST233 and the colistin-susceptible isolates as ST236 and ST407. The colistin-resistant isolates contained mutations within PmrA/PmrB, and the pmrA showed up-regulation in all of them. Only one colistin-resistant isolate indicating virulence in G. mellonella. This particular isolate belonged to a different clone, and it was the only isolate that presented non-synonymous mutations in pmrB. Colistinresistance in A. baumannii isolates seems to be caused by up-regulation of pmrA gene. Only one isolate appeared to be virulent in the G. mellonella model. This finding indicating low virulence in isolates belonging to emerging clones circulating in our hospital

Colistin-resistant Escherichia coli belonging to different sequence types: genetic characterization of isolates responsible for colonization, community- and healthcareacquired infections

The plasmid-mediated colistin-resistance gene named mcr-1 has been recently described in different countries and it became a public health challenge. Of note, few studies have addressed the spread of Escherichia coli harboring the mcr-1 gene in both, community and hospital settings. A total of seven colistin-resistant E. coli carrying mcr-1, collected from 2016 to 2018, from community (n=4), healthcare-acquired infections (n=2) and colonization (n=1) were identified in three high complexity hospitals in Sao Paulo, Brazil. These colistin-resistant isolates were screened for mcr genes by PCR and all strains were submitted to Whole Genome Sequencing and the conjugation experiment. The seven strains belonged to seven distinct sequence types (ST744, ST131, ST69, ST48, ST354, ST57, ST10), and they differ regarding the resistance profiles. Transference of mcr-1 by conjugation to E. coli strain C600 was possible in five of the seven isolates. The mcr-1 gene was found in plasmid types IncX4 or IncI2. Three of the isolates have ESBL-encoding genes (blaCTX-M-2, n=2; blaCTX-M-8, n=1). We hereby report genetically distinct E. coli isolates, belonging to seven STs, harboring the mcr-1 gene, associated to community and healthcare-acquired infections, and colonization in patients from three hospitals in Sao Paulo. These findings point out for the potential spread of plasmid-mediated colistin-resistance mechanism in E. coli strains in Brazil

Responses of sugarcane calluses in the interaction with endophytic diazotrophic bacteria.

A cana-de-açúcar é um dos cultivos mais importantes no Brasil. Estima-se que uma parte do nitrogênio total de algumas variedades de cana-de-açúcar seja obtida pela interação com microrganismos endofíticos diazotróficos. Na maior parte de sua vida, os endofíticos habitam o interior de plantas sem causar nenhum sintoma aparente de doença. O estudo de interação microrganismos/plantas foi realizado utilizando-se co-culturas entre bactérias endofíticas diazotróficas e calos de cana-de-açúcar. Em presença do calo: Enterobacter sp. ICB113, ICB117 e ICB481 foram estimuladas e mantidas em elevadas populações; Klebsiella sp. ICB375 e Pseudomonas sp. ICB383 tiveram seu número reduzido e mantiveram-se em números estáveis; e Pantoea sp. ICB409 foi totalmente eliminada, demonstrando, assim, que a planta exerce um controle sobre os microrganismos. O modelo calo de cana-de-açúcar/bactéria endofítica diazotrófica foi capaz de evidenciar diferentes interações entre vegetal e bactéria, assim como, diferentes níveis de resposta de defesa da célula vegetal.The sugarcane is one of the most important crops in Brazil. It is estimated that a portion of the total nitrogen of some varieties of sugarcane is obtained by interaction with diazotrophic endophytic microorganisms. In most of his life, the endophytes inhabit the interior of plants without causing any obvious signs of disease. The interaction study microorganisms/plants was performed using co-cultures among endophytic diazotrophic bacteria and sugarcane calluses. In the presence of callus : Enterobacter sp . ICB113 , ICB117 and ICB481 were stimulated and maintained in large populations ; Klebsiella sp . ICB375 and Pseudomonas sp. ICB383 had their numbers reduced and remained in stable numbers, and Pantoea sp. ICB409 was completely eliminated, thus demonstrating that the plant has a control over microorganisms. The model sugarcane callus/endophytic diazotrophic bacteria was able to show different interactions between plants and bacteria , as well as different levels of defense response of the plant cell

Pipeline validation for the identification of antimicrobial-resistant genes in carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

Abstract Antimicrobial-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae is a global threat to healthcare and an important cause of nosocomial infections. Antimicrobial resistance causes prolonged treatment periods, high mortality rates, and economic impacts. Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) has been used in laboratory diagnosis, but there is limited evidence about pipeline validation to parse generated data. Thus, the present study aimed to validate a bioinformatics pipeline for the identification of antimicrobial resistance genes from carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae WGS. Sequences were obtained from a publicly available database, trimmed, de novo assembled, mapped to the K. pneumoniae reference genome, and annotated. Contigs were submitted to different tools for bacterial (Kraken2 and SpeciesFinder) and antimicrobial resistance gene identification (ResFinder and ABRicate). We analyzed 201 K. pneumoniae genomes. In the bacterial identification by Kraken2, all samples were correctly identified, and in SpeciesFinder, 92.54% were correctly identified as K. pneumoniae, 6.96% erroneously as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 0.5% erroneously as Citrobacter freundii. ResFinder found a greater number of antimicrobial resistance genes than ABRicate; however, many were identified more than once in the same sample. All tools presented 100% repeatability and reproducibility and > 75% performance in other metrics. Kraken2 was more assertive in recognizing bacterial species, and SpeciesFinder may need improvements

Novel Nutraceutical (silymarin, yeast β-glucan, prebiotics, and minerals) shifts gut microbiota and restores large intestine histology of diet-induced metabolic syndrome mice

Gut dysbiosis contributes to chronic inflammation and oxidative stress associated with metabolic syndrome, and non-pharmacological, health-promoting supplements like nutraceuticals have been studied and used as a way to prevent or treat several illnesses. Thus, male C57BL/6 mice were divided into the following groups: control (CTL)_Vehicle and CTL_Nutraceutical; high-fat diet (HFD)_Vehicle, HFD_Nutraceutical, HFD_Nutraceutical_S, and isolated compounds. The vehicle and experimental formulations were administered by gavage once a day for four weeks with a high-fat diet simultaneously. In addition, we evaluated the composition of the fecal microbiota by partial 16S rRNA sequences directly amplified using a bacterial/archaeal primer set 515F/806R, and large intestine histomorphology was examined by H&E (Hematoxylin and Eosin), Masson's trichrome (MT), and PAS-AB (Periodic Acid Schiff-Alcian Blue) stains in these groups of mice. After four weeks of supplementation, only the Novel Nutraceutical supplement was able to increase α and β-diversities, modulate the relative abundance in gut microbiota, decrease Firmicutes, and increase Bacteroidetes bacteria, meanwhile recovering the large intestine’s (colon) histomorphology in CTL and HFD groups

Neisseria gonorrhoeae arthritis in a patient with Systemic Lupus: resistance and virulence profiles.

In this study, we describe a case report of gonococcal arthritis in a Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patient. Although several mechanisms favor disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) in patients immunosuppressed by SLE, this association is rarely reported in literature. We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the etiologic agent involved and molecular analysis using a global collection of N. gonorrhoeae strains. Ours is the only sample derived from synovial fluid identified in this collection, the others being from the usual anatomical sites. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion and Etest, and WGS was conducted to determine multilocus sequence typing profiles, group isolates based on core genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and identify virulence genes and antimicrobial resistance determinants. The N. gonorrhoeae samples in the global collection were highly heterogeneous. The SNP tree had a total 19532 SNPs in 320 samples. Our sample displayed resistance to ciprofloxacin (MIC = 2 μg/mL) and tetracycline (zone diameter = 0 mm) belonged to ST 1588 and was not closely related to any isolate in the global collection of N. gonorrhoeae strains. The isolate had genetic features related to beta-lactam, tetracycline and quinolone resistance. Seventy-one virulence genes were identified in our sample, belonging to the following classes: adherence, efflux pump, immune modulator, invasion, iron uptake, protease and stress adaptation. Moreover, no virulence genes for immune evasion and toxin were identified