The matrix protein of rabies virus binds to RelAp43 to modulate NF-κB-dependent gene expression related to innate immunity.

The matrix (M) protein of wild isolates of rabies virus such as Tha (M-Tha) was previously shown to be able to interact with RelAp43, a protein of the NF-κB family, and to efficiently suppress NF-κB-dependent reporter gene expression, in contrast with the vaccine strain SAD. Here, we analyze the mechanisms involved in RelAp43-M protein interaction. We demonstrate that the central part of M-Tha, and the specific C-terminal region of RelAp43 are required for this interaction.

Post-traumatic bone and/or joint limb infections due to Clostridium spp.

Background: Clostridium spp. are saprophytic Gram-positive bacteria found in soil and capable of generating endospores. Spore germination occurs when environmental conditions are favorable.

Influence of fluoroquinolone consumption in inpatients and outpatients on ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli in a university hospital.

Background: The increase in fluoroquinolone-resistant Escherichia coli has raised the issue of treatment failure in common infections. Few studies have investigated the possible relationship between outpatient fluoroquinolone consumption and resistance in hospital.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between inpatient and outpatient fluoroquinolone use and ciprofloxacin-resistant E.

[Open leg fracture with Bacillus cereus infection].

Objective: To investigate leg fractures infected with Bacillus cereus in a traumatology-orthopedic ward of a university hospital.

Methods: All B. cereus strains isolated from patients with leg fracture hospitalized in the traumatology-orthopedic ward between 1995 and 2004 were included in this retrospective study.

Streptococcus milleri group infection associated with digestive fistula in patients with vascular graft: report of seven cases and review.

We described seven patients with Streptococcus milleri group aortic (six patients) or vena cava (one patient) graft infection secondary to a vasculo-digestive fistula. Time between vascular graft setting and first clinical signs varied from eight months to more than thirteen years. Six patients had fever.

CMT-type beta-lactamase TEM-125, an emerging problem for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase detection.

The clinical strain Escherichia coli TO799 was resistant to penicillin-clavulanate combinations and ceftazidime and was not reproducibly detected as an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) according to the standards of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI; formerly NCCLS) and the national guidelines of the French Society for Microbiology (Comité de l'Antibiogramme de la Société Française de Microbiologie). A novel beta-lactamase, designated TEM-125, was responsible for this phenotype. TEM-125 harbors a complex association of mutations previously described in the ESBL TEM-12 and in the inhibitor-resistant beta-lactamase TEM-39.

Risk of emergence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics in intensive care units.

Objective: The emergence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistance to antimicrobial drugs is frequent in intensive care units and may be correlated with the use of some specific drugs. The purpose of our study was to identify a relationship between the use of various beta-lactam antibiotics and the emergence of resistance and to characterize the mechanism of resistance involved.

Design: We conducted an open prospective study over a 3-yr period by including all patients in whom P.

Cefepime in critically ill patients: continuous infusion vs. an intermittent dosing regimen.

The aim of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters of a continuous infusion of cefepime vs. an intermittent regimen in critically ill adult patients with Gram-negative bacilli infection. The prospective randomized parallel study was carried out in 50 patients with severe pneumonia (n = 41) or bacteremia (n = 9).

Bacillus cereus infections in Traumatology-Orthopaedics Department: retrospective investigation and improvement of healthcare practices.

Objective: To investigate 41 open fractures infected with Bacillus cereus in a Traumatology-Orthopaedy ward and propose a care protocol at admission.

Methods: All B. cereus strains isolated from patients hospitalized in the Traumatology-Orthopaedy ward between March 1997 and August 2001 were submitted to molecular analysis (RAPD and PFGE) in order to investigate a putative outbreak.

Successful treatment of Staphylococcus epidermidis hip prosthesis infection with oral linezolid.

Objective: To report a case of Staphylococcus epidermidis infection of a hip prosthesis successfully treated with oral linezolid.

Case Summary: A 46-year-old woman developed methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) infection of her prosthetic hip.

[Importance of a cefpirome-vancomycin combination on bactericidal kinetics in severe MRSA infections in intensive care].

Unlabelled: Vancomycin is always the drug of choice for treatment of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in spite of his bactericidal kinetic.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate in vivo the improvement of bactericidal kinetic of vancomycin associated with cefpirome against MRSA infection in critically ill patients.

Methods: The prospective cross-over study was carried out in 20 patients with severe pneumonia or bacteremia.

[Continuous versus intermittent cefepime infusion in critical care. Preliminary results].

The bactericidal activity of beta-lactams is time-dependent, and the time spent above the MIC (T > MIC) is the best predictor of efficacy. A prospective, randomized, open-label study was conducted in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with gram-negative rod infections to compare the efficacy of cefepime given as a continuous versus an intermittent infusion. Of the 18 patients included to date, 14 had severe pneumonia and four bacteremia.

[Bartonella endocarditis on native valves. Apropos of 2 cases].

The authors report two cases of Bartonella endocarditis in native valves. The first case was a 15 year old North African Girl who lived in poor social conditions and was admitted to hospital with pyrexia and congestive heart failure. Investigations revealed massive mitral regurgitation due to ruptured chordae tendinae, vegetations on the pulmonary valve with severe pulmonary hypertension due to persistent ductus arteriosus.

[Severe methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. Emergence of resistance to fusidic acid or fosfomycin during treatment with continuous infusion of vancomycin].

Objectives: To evaluate the development of resistance to fosfomycin or fucidic acid in severe infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and to assess the relationship with serum levels of vancomycin

Methods: A retrospective study was performed in patients hospitalized in our intensive care unit during a 3-year period (1993-1995) who were treated for severe MRSA infection with continuous infusion vacomycin and fosfomycin or fucidic acid. We analyzed the development of resistance and serum levels of vancomycin.

Results: During this period, only 20 patients received continuous infusion vancomycin plus fucidic acid or fosfomycin.

[Bacterial adherence: virulence factor in upper urinary tract infections].

The possibility that have certain strains of Escherichia coli to adhere to the urinary epithelium, constitutes a real pathogenic character. This adhesivity is specific and occurs through proteic structures (adhesins), that are present on the surface of bacteria and which recognize complementary receptors on uroepithelial cells. Studies of the frequency of these adhesins in different types of urinary tract infections, as well as experimental studies in animals all point towards an important role played by adhesins in the pathogenesis of the upper urinary tract infection.

[Multiple mononeuritis and cerebral meningo-arteritis. Wegener disease or Lyme disease?].

The pathogenic mechanisms underlying Lyme disease remain uncertain but an increasing number of reports suggest a vascular inflammatory process. On the other hand, the so-called systemic vasculitides, even though they remain of pathological definition, have recently been characterized by the presence, in the serum, of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). We report on a patient, finally diagnosed as having neuroborreliosis, who presented initially with multiple mononeuropathy, ANCA, vascular lesions at muscle biopsy and lymphocytic meningitis.

Rapid and specific detection of the pap, afa, and sfa adhesin-encoding operons in uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains by polymerase chain reaction.

Adhesin-encoding operons (pap, sfa/foc, and afa) have been shown to be prevalent in Escherichia coli strains associated with urinary tract infections. A quick and sensitive assay to identify these operons was developed by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Three pairs of 25-mer primers were defined from the sequences of the DNA fragments used as probes in hybridization studies to identify each of the three operons, and the six primers were used together in a single reaction of amplification.

[In vitro activity of twenty antibiotics against Rhodococcus equi].

The in vitro susceptibility of nine Rhodococcus equi strains (seven isolates from immunocompromised patients mainly HIV positive and two reference strains) to twenty various antibiotics were assessed for bacteriostatic effects by an agar dilution method. Imipenem and ceftriaxone were the most effective of the beta-lactams studied. The lowest MIC were noted with vancomycin, teicoplanin, erythromycin, clarithromycin, rifampicin, gentamicin and doxycycline.

Possible in-vivo transfer of beta-lactamase TEM-3 from Klebsiella pneumoniae to Salmonella kedougou.

Salmonella kedougou BM2659 was isolated from the stools and a blood culture of a patient and Klebsiella pneumoniae BM2657 and S. kedougou BM2658 were isolated later from the stools of the same patient. Strains BM2657 and BM2658 had identical resistance phenotypes, to beta-lactams, aminoglycosides and tetracycline, due to the presence of the same genes, blaT, aacA4 and tetC, respectively.

[Bactericidal effect of cefotaxime-sulbactam and imipenem combined with gentamicin and/or ciprofloxacin against CTX-1 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae].

Bactericidal activity of gentamicin, imipenem, ciprofloxacin and cefotaxime associated with sulbactam are studied on 36 beta lactamase CTX-1 (TEM-3) producing Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated of sputum samples and urines, among patients of intensive care units, in Rangueil hospital (Toulouse). Gentamicin, imipenem, cefotaxime associated with sulbactam have a bactericidal activity at serum levels, obtained with usual therapeutic doses. Ciprofloxacin has a bactericidal activity at concentrations obtained in urine and into lung tissue.

[Reflections on the systematic screening of cervico-vaginal smears rich in polynuclear cells].

The authors sometimes see cervico-vaginal smears with too many white cells. The question is: what is the meaning of these smears, and what must be the physician's attitude? The authors try to answer this question in this paper. They find 8 p.

Detection by molecular hybridization of pap, afa, and sfa adherence systems in Escherichia coli strains associated with urinary and enteral infections.

The genetic determinants responsible for the adherence of Escherichia coli to uroepithelial cells have been identified in recent years by genetic and molecular methods. Specific DNA probes for each of the three operons which have been cloned so far (pap, afa, sfa/foc operons) have been used in colony hybridization experiments to detect the presence of each of these operons in the chromosomal DNA of 443 strains of E. coli; 186 strains were from patients with urinary tract infections (pyelonephritis, 106 strains; cystitis, 59; asymptomatic bacteriuria, 21) and 257 were strains from the stools of healthy subjects (61) or from patients with various enteral infections (196).

Phenotypic and genotypic assays for the detection and identification of adhesins from pyelonephritic Escherichia coli.

Four different gene clusters have been characterized so far which encode adhesins involved in the specific binding of pathogenic Escherichia coli to epithelial cells of the urinary tractus: the pap, sfa, afa and bma operons. The ability to adhere to uroepithelial cells and to interact with one or several of the specific receptors identified for each of the 4 adhesins, has been studied for 102 E. coli strains isolated from patients with pyelonephritis.