Prevalence, antibiotic and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns of Staphylococcus aureus small-colony variants in cystic fibrosis patients

Staphylococcus aureus is the most common pathogen isolated from respiratory tract samples in cystic fibrosis (CF) cases. Rate of infection with S. aureus small-colony variants (SCVs) also is increasing in CF patients. In this study, we aimed to determine the prevalence, antibiotic susceptibility and genotypic property of S. aureus SCVs in respiratory tract samples of CF patients admitted to Istanbul Faculty of Medicine Hospital, Turkey. Among 305 respiratory tract samples from 84 CF patients, normal S. aureus isolates were present in 71% of the CF patients and S. aureus SCVs in 21%. The highest antibiotic resistance was against penicillin (82%) followed by clarithromycin (21%) in S. aureus SCVs, while resistance to levofloxacin was low (2%) in normal S. aureus isolates but was 16% in S. aureus SCVs. No mecA and mecC were detected. The S. aureus strains constituted 24 different genotypes based on pulsed field gel-electrophoresis assay. The possible existence of S. aureus SCVs that are more resistant to antibiotis than normal S. aureus should be taken into considerstion when treating CF patients for this pernicious bacterial infection

Chemical Complementarity of Breast Cancer Resident, T-Cell Receptor CDR3 Domains and the Cancer Antigen, ARMC3, is Associated With Higher Levels of Survival and Granzyme Expression.

INTRODUCTION: One of the most pressing goals for cancer immunotherapy at this time is the identification of actionable antigens. METHODS: This study relies on the following considerations and approaches to identify potential breast cancer antigens: (i) the significant role of the adaptive immune receptor, complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3) in antigen binding, and the existence cancer testis antigens (CTAs); (ii) chemical attractiveness; and (iii) informing the relevance of the integration of items (i) and (ii) with patient outcome and tumor gene expression data. RESULTS: We have assessed CTAs for associations with survival, based on their chemical complementarity with tumor resident T-cell receptor (TCR), CDR3s. Also, we have established gene expression correlations with the high TCR CDR3-CTA chemical complementarities, for Granzyme B, and other immune biomarkers. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, for several independent TCR CDR3 breast cancer datasets, the CTA, ARMC3, stood out as a completely novel, candidate antigen based on multiple algorithms with highly consistent approaches. This conclusion was facilitated by use of the recently constructed Adaptive Match web tool

Chemical Complementarity of Breast Cancer Resident, T-Cell Receptor CDR3 Domains and the Cancer Antigen, ARMC3, is Associated With Higher Levels of Survival and Granzyme Expression

Introduction: One of the most pressing goals for cancer immunotherapy at this time is the identification of actionable antigens. Methods: This study relies on the following considerations and approaches to identify potential breast cancer antigens: (i) the significant role of the adaptive immune receptor, complementarity determining region-3 (CDR3) in antigen binding, and the existence cancer testis antigens (CTAs); (ii) chemical attractiveness; and (iii) informing the relevance of the integration of items (i) and (ii) with patient outcome and tumor gene expression data. Results: We have assessed CTAs for associations with survival, based on their chemical complementarity with tumor resident T-cell receptor (TCR), CDR3s. Also, we have established gene expression correlations with the high TCR CDR3-CTA chemical complementarities, for Granzyme B, and other immune biomarkers. Conclusions: Overall, for several independent TCR CDR3 breast cancer datasets, the CTA, ARMC3, stood out as a completely novel, candidate antigen based on multiple algorithms with highly consistent approaches. This conclusion was facilitated by use of the recently constructed Adaptive Match web tool

DETECTION AND SPREAD OF OXA-48-PRODUCING KLEBSIELLA OXYTOCA ISOLATES IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Five OXA-48 producing Klebsiella oxytoca strains isolated in April-July 2010 were analyzed. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using disc diffusion method and VITEK 2 system. Carbapenemase activity was investigated using the Modified Hodge test. Beta-lactamase genes were detected by PCR and bla(OXA-48) was sequenced. Genetic relatedness between K. oxytoca isolates was investigated by pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Carbapenemase activity was detected in 5 isolates by Modified Hodge test. Although all strains were resistant to ertapenem and imipenem, only one strain was also resistant to meropenem. Bla(OXA-48) in 4 isolates harbored 2 or 3 other ESBL types, namely, bla(TEM), bla(SHV), bla(CTX-M) or bla(VEB). PFGE revealed 3 different pulso-types among the K. oxytoca isolates. The presence of OXA-48 carbapenemase in other species of clinical isolates should also be considered