Mycoplasma genitalium,an agent of reemerging sexually transmitted infections

M. genitalium is a reemerging microorganism, responsible for sexually transmissible infections (STIs), with prevalence which varies depending on the country and population group studied. We report here M. genitalium prevalence among the specimens received for STI diagnosis in our routine microbiological laboratory in the university hospital in Marseille, France. We tested 4 624 samples from 3 793 patients using qPCR for M. genitalium, C. trachomatis, N. gonorrheae, T. pallidum. Of these samples, 528 (13.6%) patients were tested positive for at least one pathogen and 126 (3.3%) were positive for M. genitalium. M. genitalium is the second most prevalent micro‐organism detected in women after C. trachomatis (10.4%) and the third most prevalent in men after C. trachomatis (5.1%) and N. gonorrhoeae (4.4%). We observed no significant differences between the prevalence of M. genitalium in vaginal, urethral and urine specimens (p = 0.9). Prevalence of M. genitalium is significantly higher in patients aged between 10–30 years (4.1%) compared to those aged between 30 and 50 years (2.7%) (p = 0.02, RR = 1.54 [1.06–2.24]) and patients over 50 years of age (1.1%) (p = 0.003, RR= 3.98 [1.47–10.8]). M. genitalium is a common agent of STI, therefore we suggest that this micro‐organism should be systematically tested during chronic, recurrent, or antibiotic resistant genital infections and in populations at high‐risk of STIs.     

Real-Time PCR Quantification of Methanobrevibacter oralis in Periodontitis

A real-time PCR assay developed to quantify Methanobrevibacter oralis indicated that its inoculum significantly correlated with periodontitis severity (P = 0.003), despite a nonsignificant difference in prevalence between controls (3/10) and patients (12/22) (P = 0.2, Fisher test). The M. oralis load can be used as a biomarker for periodontitis.     

Increased BDNF Levels in Long-term Bipolar Disorder Patients

IntroductionBipolar disorder (BD) is a prevalent, chronic and progressive illness. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of BD.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate BDNF plasma levels in BD patients with long term illness in comparison with controls.Methods87 BD type I patients and 58 controls matched by age, gender and education level were enrolled in this study. All subjects were assessed by the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the patients by the Young Mania Rating Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The plasma levels of BDNF were measured by ELISA.ResultsOn average, patients had suffered from BD for 23.4 years. In comparison with controls, BD patients with mania presented a 1.90-fold increase in BDNF plasma levels (p = .001), while BD patients in remission presented a 1.64-fold increase in BDNF plasma levels (p = .03). BDNF plasma levels were not influenced by age, length of illness or current medications.ConclusionsThe present study suggests that long-term BD patients exhibit increased circulating levels of BDNF.