CRISPR-Cas systems in enterococci.

Enterococci are members of the microbiota of humans and other animals. They can also be found in the environment, associated with food, healthcare infections, and hospital settings. Due to their wide distribution, they are inserted in the One Health context.

CRISPR elements and their association with antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes among vancomycin-resistant and vancomycin-susceptible enterococci recovered from human and food sources.

We aimed to investigate the occurrence of CRISPR elements in the genomes of vancomycin-resistant (VRE) and vancomycin-susceptible (VSE) enterococci and their association with the presence of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes. We analyzed 180 isolates, including 91 VRE and 89 VSE. Isolates were identified by PCR or MALDI-TOF.

PCR primers designed for new world Leishmania: A systematic review.

Studies of the primers that were designed to detect New World Leishmania were systematically reviewed to report the characteristics of each target, detection limit, specificity of the primers designed and diagnostic sensibility. The papers identified in the databases PubMed and Web of Science involved 50 studies. Minicircle is the most applied target in molecular research for diagnosis, due to its high sensitivity in detecting Leishmania in different clinical samples, a characteristic that can be partially attributed to the higher number of copies of the minicircle per cell.

Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detection of Leishmania Sp. in Sandflies of the Paraná River Islands, Southern Brazil.

Leishmaniases are classified as tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Brazil is among the countries with the highest number of TL and VL cases. This study was undertaken to standardize the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of the genus Leishmania in sandflies of endemic regions, on islands in the Upper Paraná River, northwestern Paraná.

Potency determination of recombinant IFN-alpha based on phosphorylated STAT1 using flow cytometry.

The interferon (IFN) family of cytokines is recognized as a key component of the innate immune response and the first line of defense against viral infection. The usage of the IFN-alpha as a biopharmaceutical has been mainly applied in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. In the literature it is possible to find a great variety of methods to determine the potency of these cytokines, and many efforts have been made in order to develop practical bioassays to study the biological activity of IFNs.