Highlights at the 28th Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), 2018

The last European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held in Madrid (Spain), last April 2018, was an undoubtful success for scientific quality and conference affluency [1]. The congress covered the entire field of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology with a significant and important participation of scientist all over the world (more than 12, 400 congresists from more than 120 countries). In fact, nowadays ECCMID has become the world congress of reference, for excellence and participation, the main meeting in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. Designed with more than 250 sessions, the key topics were antimicrobial resistance, novel diagnostic techniques, the role of microbiota, and new antimicrobials. In addition, the congress also covered different aspects of the big four in infectious diseases: bacterial, viral (HIV and hepatitis), fungal and parasitic infections. The complete program included a total number of 3, 563 abstracts, more than a hundred of symposiums and oral sessions, 20 educational workshops and 25 experts meetings. This minireview will try to summarize, from an objective point of view, the most important contributions, only focusing in three different aspects: microbiology diagnosis, resistance to antimicrobials, and new antimicrobials. ..

Candida bracarensis, an emerging yeast involved in human infections

Sir, Invasive candidiasis is an increasingly detected complication in hospitalized adult patients, due to an increase in patients at risk (patients admitted to intensive care units, post-surgical patients, neutropenic and immunosuppressed patients). Non- albicans Candida species have increased in multiple centers and new species are proposed. This is the case of Candida nivariensis and Candida bracarensis that are phylogenetically related with C. glabrata, although with sufficiently genotypically different to justify their assignment as separate species..

Ascitis secundaria a chlamydia trachomatis tras procedimiento de reproducción asistida

El desarrollo de ascitis moderada o severa es infrecuente tras una enfermedad inflamatoria pélvica por Chlamydia trachomatis, una de las principales causas de infección de transmisión sexual a nivel mundial. Caso clínico: Paciente de 29 años que tras aborto diferido (gestación tras inseminación artificial) que inicia a las seis semanas con cuadro de dolor abdominal inespecífico y ascitis de predominio linfocitario. El diagnostico se realizo mediante PCR (Werfen®) tanto el liquido ascítico como en exudado endocervical. La paciente recibió tratamiento antibiótico con doxiciclina. Conclusión: Las enfermedades de transmisión sexual deben ser consideradas cuando se realiza un diagnóstico diferencial de una mujer sexualmente activa con dolor abdominal y ascitis, instaurar tratamiento antibiótico y evitar pruebas e intervenciones quirúrgicas innecesarias. The development of moderate or severe ascites is infrequent after a pelvic inflammatory disease from Chlamydia trachomatis, one of the main causes of sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Clinical case: A 29-year-old patient who, after a delayed abortion (gestation after artificial insemination), started at six weeks with symptoms of non-specific abdominal pain and predominantly lymphocytic ascites. The diagnosis is made by PCR (Werfen®) both the ascitic fluid and the endocervical exudate. The patient received antibiotic treatment with doxycycline. Conclusion: Sexually transmitted diseases should be considered when making a differential diagnosis of a sexually activated woman with abdominal pain and ascites. Establishing antibiotic treatment, and avoiding unnecessary tests and surgical treatments

Arthrobacter creatinolyticus: un patógeno emergente en el ser humano causante de infecciones del tracto urinario

Arthrobacter creatinolyticus is a Gram-positive aerobic coccobacillus, catalase-positive, belonging to the family Micrococcaceae, order Actinomycetales, usually found in soil and in the environment. This organism produces urease, an extracellular enzyme with many industrial applications and a potential use in anti-cancer therapy due to its cytotoxic effect.1 We have only found in the literature one case of bacteremia due to this microorganism, and none confirmed as a cause of urinary tract infection. We present a case of urinary tract infection due to A. creatinolyticus. A woman, in her ninety, came to the primary care with signs of agitation. The patient presented several pathologies as hypertension, diabetes, Parkinson''s disease and vascular dementia. She was aggressive at the time of consultation and the exploration was complicated as well as the anamnesis that was unable to stablish the presence of urethral syndrome. In addition no urine test strip or sediment analysis was done. The caregiver confirmed that the patient did not had fever but she had been agitated for the past four days. On the suspicion of urinary infection, the doctor ordered a urine culture and prescribed fosfomycin empirically. After 24 h of incubation in the chromogenic medium UTIR (Oxoid LTD, UK), >100, 000 CFU/mL of A. creatinolyticus were isolated (Fig. 1)..

Sphingosine 1-phosphate regulation of extracellular signal regulated kinase-1/2 in embyronic stem cells

Recent evidence suggests that sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) regulates self-renewal of human embryonic stem (ES) cells and differentiation of mouse embryoid bodies (derived from mouse ES cells) to cardiomyocytes. We have investigated the role of S1P in regulating ERK-1/2 signaling in mouse ES cells. In this regard, we found that both mouse ES-D3 and CGR8 cells express S1P1, S1P2, S1P3, and S1P5 but lack S1P4. The treatment of ES cells with S1P induced the activation of ERK-1/2 via a mechanism that was not mediated by S1P1, S1P2, or S1P3. This was based on: (i) the failure of S1P1, S1P2, or S1P3 antagonists to inhibit S1P-stimulated ERK-1/2 activation and (ii) the failure of SEW 2871 (S1P1 receptor agonist) to stimulate ERK-1/2 activation. The treatment of ES cells with phytosphingosine 1-phosphate (phyto-S1P), which we show here is an agonist of the S1P5 receptor, stimulated ERK-1/2 activation. These findings therefore suggest that S1P5 may mediate the effects of S1P in terms of regulating ERK-1/2 signaling in ES cells. The S1P-dependent activation of ERK-1/2 was sensitive to inhibition by pertussis toxin (uncouples the G-protein, Gi from GPCR), bisindolylmaleimide I (PKC inhibitor), and PP2 (c-Src inhibitor), but was not reduced by LY29004 (PI3K inhibitor) suggesting that S1P uses Gi-, PKC-, and c-Src-dependent mechanisms to activate the ERK-1/2 pathway in ES cells

Characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 lineages during June 2020 in Aragon, Spain

Trabajo presentado al 31st European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), celebrado online del 9 al 12 de julio de 2021.Peer reviewe