Alivalentin7194
Functional analyses obviously exhibited that these two CXC chemokines at concentrations of 1-10 μg strongly inactivated S. agalactiae and Flavobacterium columnare and effectively induced phagocytosis of leukocytes in vitro.Matricellular proteins, which exist in association with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and ECM protein molecules, harbor functional sites within their molecular structures. These functional sites are released through proteolytic cleavage by inflammatory proteinases, such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS), and the peptides containing these functional sites have unique biological activities that are often not detected in the parent molecules. learn more We previously showed that tenascin-C (TNC) and plasma fibronectin (pFN), examples of matricellular proteins, have cryptic bioactive sites that have opposite effects on cell adhesion to the ECM. A peptide containing the bioactive site of TNC, termed TNIIIA2, which is highly released at sites of inflammation and in the tumor microenvironment (TME), has the ability to potently and persistently activate β1-integrins. In the opposite manner, the peptide FNIII14 containing the bioactive site of pFN has the ability to inactivate β1-integrins. This review highlights that peptide TNIIIA2 can act as a procancer factor and peptide FNIII14 can act as an anticancer agent, based on the regulation on β1-integrin activation. Notably, the detrimental effects of TNIIIA2 can be inhibited by FNIII14. These findings open the possibility for new therapeutic strategies based on the inactivation of β1-integrin by FNIII14.Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections, accounting for a substantial portion of outpatient hospital and clinic visits. Standard diagnosis of UTI by culture and sensitivity can take at least 48 h, and improper diagnosis can lead to an increase in antibiotic resistance following therapy. To address these shortcomings, rapid bioluminescence assays were developed and evaluated for the detection of UTI using intact, viable cells of Photobacterium mandapamensis USTCMS 1132 or previously lyophilized cells of Photobacterium leiognathi ATCC 33981™. Two platform technologies-tube bioluminescence extinction technology urine (TuBETUr) and cellphone-based UTI bioluminescence extinction technology (CUBET)-were developed and standardized using artificial urine to detect four commonly isolated UTI pathogens-namely, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. Besides detection, these assays could also provide information regarding pathogen concentration/level, helping guide treatment decisions. These technologies were able to detect microbes associated with UTI at less than 105 CFU/mL, which is usually the lower cut-off limit for a positive UTI diagnosis. Among the 29 positive UTI samples yielding 105-106 CFU/mL pathogen concentrations, a total of 29 urine specimens were correctly detected by TuBETUr as UTI-positive based on an 1119 s detection window. Similarly, the rapid CUBET method was able to discriminate UTIs from normal samples with high confidence (p ≤ 0.0001), using single-pot conditions and cell phone-based monitoring. These technologies could potentially address the need for point-of-care UTI detection while reducing the possibility of antibiotic resistance associated with misdiagnosed cases of urinary tract infections, especially in low-resource environments.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) remain a common problem, which suggests that standard decontamination procedures are insufficient. Thus, new methods of decontamination are needed in hospitals.
We assessed the effectiveness of a no-touch automated disinfection (NTD) system in the decontamination of 50 surfaces in 10 hospital rooms. Contamination of surfaces was assessed with a microbiological assay and an ATP bioluminescence assay. Unacceptable contamination was defined as > 100 colony forming units/100 cm
in the microbiological assay, and as ≥ 250 relative light units in the ATP assay.
When measured with the microbiological assay, 11 of 50 surfaces had unacceptable contamination before NTD, and none of the surfaces had unacceptable contamination after NTD (
< 0.001). On the ATP bioluminescence assay, NTD decreased the number of surfaces with unacceptable contamination from 28 to 13, but this effect was non-significant (
= 0.176). On the microbiological assay taken before NTD, the greatest contamination exceeded the acceptable level by more than 11-fold (lamp holder, 1150 CFU/100 cm
). On the ATP bioluminescence assay taken before NTD, the greatest contamination exceeded the acceptable level by more than 43-fold (Ambu bag, 10,874 RLU).
NTD effectively reduced microbiological contamination in all hospital rooms. However, when measured with the ATP bioluminescence assay, the reduction of contamination was not significant.
NTD effectively reduced microbiological contamination in all hospital rooms. However, when measured with the ATP bioluminescence assay, the reduction of contamination was not significant.Clostridium tyrobutyricum is well known as one of the main causative agents of severe cheese spoilage. The metabolism of this anaerobic bacterium during ripening leads to textural and sensory defects in cheese and consequential loss of product value. The potential to induce cheese spoilage, however, may vary among different strains of the same species. Therefore, a better understanding of the intra-species diversity of C. tyrobutyricum may be of practical relevance for the dairy industry. In the present study, we compared the ability of three typing techniques to differentiate 95 C.tyrobutyricum strains on the subspecies level (1) repetitive element palindromic PCR (rep-PCR) fingerprinting combined with conventional agarose gel electrophoresis, (2) hexaplex-PCR followed by an automated capillary electrophoresis and (3) matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) typing. MALDI-TOF MS fingerprinting provided only moderate reproducibility and low discriminatory power.
