44 research outputs found
EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERISATION OF BRUCELLA ABORTUS STRAIN RB51 ROUGH LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE
Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease with considerable impacts on human and animal health.
Brucella abortus strain RB51 vaccine is used for prevention of bovine brucellosis in Iran. Due to
strain roughness, available serological tests cannot detect vaccinated animals. Detection of serological
responses to the vaccine is important to monitor accurate vaccination implementation. Rough
lipopolysaccharide (RLPS) of RB51 strain was extracted and characterised to develop serological
tests for diagnosis of vaccinated animals. RLPS was extracted using phenol-chloroform-petroleum
ether and evaluated by limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID). According to our results, the
extracted RLPS caused positive reaction in LAL assay. In SDS-PAGE, a band with a molecular
weight around 14 kDa was identified after specific staining using silver nitrate. Double AGID of the
RLPS with a hyperimmune serum resulted in a precipitation line formation. Our study showed that
the method can be successfully used to extract RLPS from Brucella abortus strain RB51 as confirmed
by LAL assay, PAGE and AGID.
Key words: brucellosis, RB51 vaccine, rough lipopolysaccharid
Frequency of Multi-Drug Resistance and Molecular Characteristics of Resistance to Colistin in Acinetobacter baumannii Collected from Patients in Intensive Care Units with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
Background: Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most common causes of
ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in patients hospitalized in ICU.
Multiple resistance has resulted in excessive use of Colistin antibiotic, which is
the latest treatment option for this bacterium. Therefore, the purpose of this
study was to determine the abundance of multi-resistance and molecular
characteristics of resistance to colistin among A. baumannii isolated from
patients that are infected with VAP and hospitalized in ICU of “Qazvin” and
“Masih Daneshvari” hospitals.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 200 A. baumannii isolates related to VAP
were collected from ICU of “Masih Daneshvari” (2012-2018) and “Qazvin”
(2017-2018) hospitals, from bronchoalveolar lavage & tracheal aspirate
specimens. Isolates were detected as A. baumannii by PCR with specific primers
of the blaOXA-51-like gene. Antibacterial susceptibility of isolates to colistin was
determined by the MIC method, and other antibiotics were examined by the
disk diffusion method, according to the CLSI criteria. Multi-drug resistance
(MDR) and extended–drug resistance (XDR) isolates were determined
according to standard definitions of the CLSI.
Results: All the isolates were susceptible to colistin. Moreover, they were
resistant to piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, ceftazidime, cefotaxime,
ceftriaxone, amikacin, gentamycin, levofloxacin, co-trimoxazole, and
ciprofloxacin. Antimicrobial resistance rates for tetracycline and ampicillinsulbactam were 8.5% and 20%, respectively. All isolates were MDR and XDR.
All isolates were susceptible to colistin (MIC50=1 and MIC90=2 µg/ml). The
sequencing results did not show any point mutation in pmr CAB genes, and
mcr-1 gene was not detected in any isolates.
Conclusion: In this study, all A. baumannii isolates collected from VAP patients
were MDR and XDR. Although all isolates were susceptible to colistin, and this
agent seems the most appropriate antibiotic for treatment of VAP, colistin
resistance can become endemic in the world rapidly due to plasmid-mediated
mobile colistin resistance mcr genes