Assessment of the contamination potentials of some foodborne bacteria in biofilms for food products

ObjectiveTo assess biofilms formed by different bacterial strains on glass slides, and changes in biofilm mass and biofilm-associated cell populations after brief contacts between biofilms and either media agar or food products.MethodsTwo Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains and a single Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strain were inoculated separately in tryptic soy broth containing glass coupons incubated for 24, 48 or 72 h at 37 °C. The biofilms formed by individual bacterial strains and biofilm-associated cell populations were determined. Biofilms were subsequently allowed to have brief contacts (1-3 times), through gentle touching, with either agar, meat or soft white cheese (2 cm³). Changes in biofilm mass on glass slides and cell populations embedded in biofilms were quantified.ResultsA nonpathogenic E. coli formed more biofilms than an E. coli O157:H7 strain. Biofilms formed by S. aureus and Listeria monocytogenes were essentially similar. The biofilm mass increased as incubation time increased within 48 h of incubation and was not positively correlated with cellulose production. Biofilm mass at 48 and 72 h of incubation was not significantly different. More frequent contacts with agar or foods did not remove more biofilms or biofilm-associated cells from glass slides. More S. aureus biofilms were removed followed by Listeria and E. coli biofilms. Mean contamination of agar or food models was 0.00 to 7.65 log CFU/cm². Greater contaminations in cell populations were observed with S. aureus and Listeria biofilms.ConclusionsThe results provide a clearer assessment of contaminating potential of foods that comes in contact with them.     

Analysis of oral microbiota in Japanese oral cancer patients using 16S rRNA sequencing

ObjectivesIt is important to determine the cause of increasing oral cancer occurrence and mortality rates in Japan, because the mortality rate has recently decreased in other developed countries. The impact of microbiota in carcinogenesis, especially in the digestive tract has been reported. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between oral cancer and oral microbiota in Japanese patients.MethodsDNA was extracted from salivary samples of 60 oral cancer patients and 80 non-cancer individuals as controls. We performed metagenomic analysis using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Statistical analysis in this study was performed using R (version 3.5.0).ResultsOral cancer patients showed higher α-diversity compared to the control group, and the β-diversity between the two groups differed significantly. Further, there was a significant difference in the abundance ratio of bacterial genera between the two groups. Peptostreptococcus, Fusobacterium, Alloprevotella, and Capnocytophaga were more abundant in the cancer group compared to the control, whereas Rothia and Haemophilus were less abundant (p < 0.01). A negative correlation in the microbiota composition was confirmed between the operational taxonomic units (OTU) of genus Rothia and T-stage progression using the TNM classification method. We performed logistic regression analysis to investigate the impact factor for the oral cancer group, and the result showed that Chao 1 index and sex are statistically significant variables.ConclusionsIn this study, we observed an increased bacterial diversity in oral cancer patients and found distribution changes for some bacteria.     

Towards eradicating antibiotic-resistant bacteria: synthesis and antibacterial activities of substituted N-(2-nitrophenyl)pyrrolidine- and piperidine-2-carboxylic acids

Antibacterial resistance is a source of great concern in the effective prevention and treatment of infections caused by bacteria, making the development of requisite therapeutics a major challenge. N-(Nitrophenyl)cycloamino acids are important compounds in the synthesis of poly-condensed nitrogen-containing heterocycles with marked activities in many biological systems. A series of substituted N-(o-nitrophenyl)cycloamino-2-carboxylic acids 3a–3g were synthesized via the condensation reaction of substituted o-halogenonitrobenzenes with L-proline 2a and D,L-pipecolinic acid 2b, under refluxing alcoholic basic conditions in excellent yields. The synthesized compounds were characterised by FT-IR, (¹H & ¹³C) NMR, UV-Vis, mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Their antibacterial activities were evaluated against five Gram-positive and five Gram-negative bacterial strains using the broth micro-dilution procedure. The antibacterial activities of the synthesized compounds were compared with streptomycin and nalidixic acid as standard antibiotic drugs. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of compounds 3a–3g revealed good antibacterial activities against the tested microorganisms. Compounds 3a–3g were more potent than nalidixic acid against Enterococcus faecalis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Escherichia coli and Proteus vulgaris and also more potent than streptomycin against Enterobacter cloacae and Staphylococcus aureus. Compounds 3a, 3c and 3g displayed the highest antibacterial potency with an MIC value of 15.6 μg/mL against E. cloacae, E. faecalis and P. mirabilis, respectively. These results indicated that these aryl cycloamino acids with antibacterial activities had potential applications as substitutes for antimicrobial peptide antibiotics, which are not susceptible to bacterial resistance, to solve the problem of drug resistance.     

Influence of Periodontal Status and Periodontopathogens on Levels of Oral Human β‐Defensin‐2 in Saliva

Background: Expression patterns of human β‐defensin‐2 (HBD‐2) mRNA or HBD‐2 protein concentration and periodontal diseases have been a focus of scientific research. This study compares the salivary levels of HBD‐2 protein concentration of healthy patients and patients with gingivitis and chronic periodontitis (CP) and correlates these levels with the presence of periodontopathogens. Methods: A total of 89 patients were enrolled in this study: 31 periodontally healthy, 27 with gingivitis, and 31 with CP. Plaque and gingival indices, probing depth, and clinical attachment level were measured. The presence of Campylobacter rectus, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, and Prevotella intermedia was evaluated qualitatively by conventional polymerase chain reaction. HBD‐2 quantification in saliva was performed using an immune enzymatic assay. Frequency of periodontopathogens and HBD‐2 protein concentration was assessed. Association between HBD‐2 protein concentration (≥100 pg/mL) and the simultaneous presence of one to two, three to four, or five to six periodontopathogens was tested. Results: Although periodontally healthy individuals and patients with gingivitis showed similar HBD‐2 levels, the CP group displayed an increased level of HBD‐2. P. gingivalis, P. intermedia, T. forsythia, and T. denticola were more prevalent in CP; however, their mere presence was not related to the increased levels of HBD‐2 (Pearson correlation and multinomial logistic regression model). Conclusions: Salivary HBD‐2 protein concentration was higher in patients with CP compared with healthy individuals or patients with gingivitis. These different protein concentrations were not related to the frequency of periodontopathogens. Clinical inflammatory profile had a higher impact on salivary HBD‐2 levels than bacteria.     

病原菌群体感应系统的研究进展

群体感应是细菌间依赖细胞密度的一种信息传递方式.细菌通过合成、分泌信号分子感知细菌群体密度,从而控制整个细菌群体行为.目前已在许多革兰阴性菌、革兰阳性菌和真菌中发现群体感应系统,对群体感应系统信号分子结构、信号传导通路进行大量研究后,发现其与细菌生物膜形成、生成分泌毒力因子密切相关.本文就以典型的铜绿假单胞菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、哈氏弧菌、白色念珠菌为例,对群体感应系统相关机制及研究进展予以综述.     

166例支气管哮喘急性发作期患儿呼吸道病原学分析

目的：了解东莞市儿童支气管哮喘急性发作期的病原学分布特征,指导临床治疗。方法：选择东莞市太平人民医院2012年6月至2013年6月收治住院的支气管哮喘急性发作患儿共166例,根据年龄分为〈3岁婴幼儿组和≥3岁儿童组,分别检测病毒、支原体（MP）、衣原体（CP）及细菌等病原体分布情况。结果：166例患儿检出病毒、MP、CP、细菌感染任何一项阳性者共132例,占79.5%,其中检出病毒69例（41.6%）、CP 16例（9.6%）、MP 39例（23.5%）,细菌培养阳性39例（23.5%）。结论：东莞市儿童哮喘急性发作与感染密切相关,病毒感染最多见,MP、细菌感染亦较常见。     

Nanocarriers for antibiotics: A promising solution to treat intracellular bacterial infections

In the field of antibiotherapy, intracellular infections remain difficult to eradicate mainly due to the poor intracellular penetration of most of the commonly used antibiotics. Bacteria have quickly understood that their intracellular localisation allows them to be protected from the host immune system, but also from the action of antimicrobial agents. In addition, in most cases pathogens nestle in professional phagocytic cells, and can even use them as a ‘Trojan horse’ to induce a secondary site of infection thereby causing persistent or recurrent infections. Thus, new strategies had to be considered in order to counteract these problems. Amongst them, nanocarriers loaded with antibiotics represent a promising approach. Nowadays, it is possible to encapsulate, incorporate or even conjugate biologically active molecules into different families of nanocarriers such as liposomes or nanoparticles in order to deliver antibiotics intracellularly and hence to treat infections. This review gives an overview of the variety of nanocarriers developed to deliver antibiotics directly into infected cells.     

Microbiota,infecciones gastrointestinales,inflamación de bajo grado y antibioticoterapia en el síndrome de intestino irritable. Una revisión basada en evidencias

BackgroundPost-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) prevalence, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), altered microbiota, low-grade inflammation, and antibiotic therapy in IBS are all controversial issues.AimsTo conduct an evidence-based review of these factors.MethodsA review of the literature was carried out up to July 2012, with the inclusion of additional articles as far as August 2013, all of which were analyzed through the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (OCEBM) system.Results1. There is greater SIBO probability in IBS when breath tests are performed, but prevalence varies widely (2-84%). 2. The gut microbiota in individuals with IBS is different from that in healthy subjects, but a common characteristic present in all the patients has not been established. 3. The incidence and prevalence of PI-IBS varies from 9-10% and 3-17%, respectively, and the latter decreases over time. Bacterial etiology is the most frequent but post-viral and parasitic cases have been reported. 4. A sub-group of patients has increased enterochromaffin cells, intraepithelial lymphocytes, and mast cells in the intestinal mucosa, but no differences between PI-IBS and non-PI-IBS have been determined. 5. Methanogenic microbiota has been associated with IBS with constipation. 6. Rifaximin at doses of 400 mg TID/10 days or 550 mg TID/14 days is effective treatment for the majority of overall symptoms and abdominal bloating in IBS. Retreatment effectiveness appears to be similar to that of the first cycle.ConclusionsFurther studies are required to determine the nature of the gut microbiota in IBS and the differences in low-grade inflammation between PI-IBS and non-PI-IBS. Rifaximin has shown itself to be effective treatment for IBS, regardless of prior factors.     

鲍曼不动杆菌及其耐药基因的检测

目的：探索一种检测鲍曼不动杆菌及其耐药基因的新方法。方法首先对近几年医院内鲍曼不动杆菌的耐药情况进行分析,选择临床上治疗鲍曼不动杆菌的首选药,再采用聚合酶链反应对鲍曼不动杆菌及其突变株进行检测。结果鲍曼不动杆菌对亚胺培南的耐药率最低,为9.37%,OXA-51基因扩增结果与细菌培养相符,OXA-23基因扩增与鲍曼不动杆菌耐亚胺培南的结果相符。结论采用PCR法对OXA-51基因扩增可以检测是否存在鲍曼不动杆菌,采用PCR法对OXA-23基因扩增可以检测鲍曼不动杆菌是否存在亚胺培南耐药性。从而快速检测鲍曼不动杆菌及其耐药基因,指导临床用药。