Characteristics related to antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation of widespread methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis ST2 and ST23 lineages in Rio de Janeiro hospitals, Brazil

AbstractStaphylococcus epidermidis is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, mostly associated with the use of medical devices in seriously ill or immunocompromised patients. Currently, the characteristics of methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) isolates from Rio de Janeiro hospitals are unknown. In this study, staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (SCCmec) types, antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, biofilm formation genes, and multilocus sequence types (MLST) were investigated in 35 MRSE clinical isolates. The collection of isolates was previously well characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) into 2 main genotypes (A and B, 22 isolates) and 10 sporadic genotypes (13 isolates). MLST revealed a total of 8 different sequence types (STs), but ST2 and ST23, which were icaAB-positive, represented the majority (71.4%) of MRSE isolates tested. Almost all isolates (91.4%) belonged to clonal complex 2. SCCmec types III and IV were identified among 71.4% of the isolates, while the remaining was nontypeable. The predominant MRSE genotypes were defined as SCCmec type III/ST2 (PFGE type A) and SCCmec type IV/ST23 (PFGE type B) isolates, which were both associated with high antimicrobial resistance and presence of biofilm-related genes

Biofilm formation, interaction and survival within A549 pneumocytes of Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strains: identification of pulsotypes, multidrug-resistance and genes coding for adhesins: Formação de biofilme, interação e sobrevivência dentro dos pneumócitos A549 de cepas clínicas de Klebsiella pneumoniae: identificação de pulsótipos, multirresistência a drogas e codificação de genes para adesinas

Klebsiella pneumoniaehas become one of the major causes of hospital-acquired infections over decades due to the spread of virulent clones harboring resistant genes to multiple antimicrobial agents. The aim of this study was to investigate phenotypic and genotypic features of virulence mechanism expressed by K. pneumoniae clinical isolates of different PFGE types, including biofilm formation, interaction with pneumocytes A549 lineage and experimental infection by using C. elegans nematodes.  A total of 17 K. pneumoniae strains were isolated from different clinical specimens including blood, urine and respiratory infections. In this present study, 11 strains presented a varied multidrug-resistance profile harboring resistance genes coding for betalactams, aminoglicosydes, fluorquinolones and carbapenemases. PFGE analysis demonstrated the presence of four distinct pulsotypes among K. pneumoniae strains harboring virulence genes for siderophores and fimbiae type 1 and type 3. High adherence and biofilm formation were positively correlated for both polystyrene and glass surfaces in all K. pneumoniae strains analyzed. K. pneumoniae clinical strains showed the ability of adherence, internalization and persistence within human pulmonary epithelial A549 cell line, at different levels. Respiratory infections demonstrated a higher heterogeneity of PFGE types and levels of adherence, intracellular survival and persistence.K. pneumoniae strains were also submitted to Carnohabidits elegans in vivo infection model and data showed that after 24 hr almost 10% of urine-culture isolates worms were dead evidencing virulence profile. Notably, K. pneumoniae strains, presenting virulence genes, was significantly more virulent than those who did not presented any virulence gene after 5 days (survival >60% and >40%)

Eu quero saber: 60 perguntas e respostas sobre a COVID-19

COVID-19 is caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the first cases were reported in December 2019 in Wuhan Province in China. Subsequently, the virus quickly reached Europe, the United States and landed in Brazil. Even after four months of the first confirmed case in the city of São Paulo (March 4, 2020), many doubts remain or arise as researchers learn more about COVID-19 and the rate at which the disease progresses. Interestingly, the concern about seeking to know more about the new disease and about the measures to combat it began to appear in the speeches and questions of patients and visitors of our Laboratory of the Research Group on Cardiorespiratory Evaluation and Rehabilitation (GECARE) of the Department of Physiotherapy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). This allowed us to exercise a fundamental approach in the context of health care, to inform from listening to patients' doubts. Break the logic of imposing information. In this sense, GECARE's scientific initiation, master's and doctoral students began to catalog doubts about COVID-19. This happened based on groups of messages maintained with patients during the period of social distance for guidance and monitoring of health conditions. Then, we set up a multiprofessional health team to answer the questions and compiled this 3rd E-book on COVID-19 from our group. We believe that our patients' doubts and the quick question and answer format will allow people in general to know more about the context of COVID-19.A COVID-19 é provocada pelo novo coronavírus SARS-CoV-2 e os primeiros casos foram notificados em dezembro de 2019 na Província de Wuhan na China. Na sequência, rapidamente o vírus alcançou a Europa, Estados Unidos e desembarcou no Brasil. Mesmo depois de quatro meses do primeiro caso confirmado na cidade de São Paulo (04 de março de 2020), muitas dúvidas permanecem ou surgem à medida que os pesquisadores conhecem mais sobre a COVID-19 e na proporção que a doença avança. Interessantemente, a inquietação pela busca em saber mais sobre a nova doença e sobre as medidas para combatê-la começou a surgir nas falas e perguntas dos pacientes e frequentadores do nosso Laboratório do Grupo de Pesquisa em Avaliação e Reabilitação Cardiorrespiratória (GECARE) do Departamento de Fisioterapia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Isso nos permitiu exercitar uma abordagem fundamental no contexto do cuidado em saúde, informar a partir da escuta das dúvidas dos pacientes. Quebrar a lógica da imposição da informação. Neste sentido, os alunos de iniciação científica, mestrado e doutorado do GECARE começaram a catalogar as dúvidas sobre a COVID-19. Isso aconteceu a partir dos grupos de mensagens mantidos com os pacientes durante o período de distanciamento social para orientações e acompanhamento das condições de saúde. Na sequência, montamos um time multiprofissional de saúde para responder as questões e compilamos neste 3º E-book sobre COVID-19 do nosso grupo. Acreditamos que as dúvidas dos nossos pacientes e o formato rápido de perguntas e respostas permitirão que as pessoas em geral possam conhecer mais sobre o contexto da COVID-19

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Papillomavirus infections in the oral and genital mucosa of asymptomatic women

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been found in several regions of the body, including the oral cavity. Recently, this virus has been associated with oropharyngeal cancer, but little is known about HPV transmission to the oral cavity. We carried out a study to investigate concurrent oral and cervical infections in 76 asymptomatic women attending a healthcare program. Demographic and behavior data were obtained through a structured questionnaire. Oral and cervical mucosa scrapings were collected and stored for DNA extraction. HPV DNA amplification was performed by polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) using both primers My09/My11 and FAP59/64, followed by HPV typing with restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) and sequencing. The data collected revealed no risk factors for HPV infection in these 76 women. HPV prevalence of 9.2 and 5.3% was found in cervical and oral mucosa, respectively. Concurrent infections by discordant types were detected in one case only. Sequencing procedures allowed us to detect a new putative HPV 17 subtype from the Betapapillomavirus genus. Our results support the view that cervical and oral HPV infections are independent events. The observed low prevalence of both oral and cervical HPV infections could be associated with attendance in a healthcare program. Keywords: HPV, Oral infection, Transmissio