Lectins are capable of reading out the structural information contained in carbohydrates through specific recognition processes. Determining the binding epitope of the sugar is fundamental to understanding this recognition event. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool to obtain this structural information in solution; however, when the sugar involved is a complex oligosaccharide, such as high mannose, the signal overlap found in the NMR spectra precludes an accurate analysis of the interaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStereoselective total synthesis of several analogues of piscibactin (Pcb), the siderophore produced by different pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria, was performed. The acid-sensitive αmethylthiazoline moiety was replaced by a more stable thiazole ring, differing in the configuration of the OH group at the C-13 position. The ability of these Pcb analogues to form complexes with Ga as a mimic of Fe showed that the configuration of the hydroxyl group at C-13 as 13 is crucial for the chelation of Ga to preserve the metal coordination, while the presence of a thiazole ring instead of the αmethylthiazoline moiety does not affect such coordination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CR-GNB) is challenging and new active antibiotics are needed urgently. This study describes the efficacy and safety of cefiderocol in a retrospective series of 13 patients with severe CR-GNB infection and limited treatment options. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the predominant CR-GNB (n=8), followed by Burkholderia cepacia (n=3), Sthenotrophomona maltophilia (n=1) and KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=1).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOpen Forum Infect Dis
April 2023
Background: The Clinical Trial of Sarilumab in Adults With COVID-19 (SARICOR) showed that patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia and increased levels of interleukin (IL)-6 might benefit from blockade of the IL-6 pathway. However, the benefit from this intervention might not be uniform. In this subanalysis, we sought to determine if other immunoactivation markers, besides IL-6, could identify which subgroup of patients benefit most from this intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections due to have been increasing in intensive care units (ICUs) in the last decade. Such infections pose a serious problem, especially when antimicrobial resistance is present. We created a task force of experts, including specialists in intensive care medicine, anaesthesia, microbiology and infectious diseases, selected on the basis of their varied experience in the field of nosocomial infections, who conducted a comprehensive review of the recently published literature on the management of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) infections in the intensive care setting from 2012 to 2022 to summarize the best available treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood allergy induced by lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) of Rosacea fruit family, such as peach, is becoming an important health problem in the Mediterranean area. Current treatments, such as allergen specific immunotherapy (AIT) with allergenic extracts show promising, but in many cases, they need an improvement in homogeneity, availability and induction of tolerant responses. Peptide-based vaccines containing adjuvants, such as carbohydrates for C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) are presented as an alternative approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
February 2022
The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of early treatment with sarilumab, added to standard of care (SOC), in hospitalized adults with COVID-19. Methods included phase II, open-label, randomized, controlled clinical trial of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and interleukin (IL)-6 levels ≥ 40 pg/mL and/or d-dimer > 1,500 ng/mL. Participants were randomized (1:1:1) to receive SOC (control group), SOC plus a single subcutaneous dose of sarilumab 200 mg (sarilumab-200 group), or SOC plus a single subcutaneous dose of sarilumab 400 mg (sarilumab-400 group).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to analyze the percentage of patients admitted to the ICU having received the vaccine against COVID-19, to describe the clinical profile of vaccinated patients admitted to the ICU, and to assess the humoral immune response to vaccination. In this multicenter prospective descriptive cohort study, consecutive critically ill patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who received at least one dose of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were included. The time of study was from 1 July to 10 August of 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPiscibactin (Pcb) is a labile siderophore widespread among Vibrionaceae. Its production is a major virulence factor of some fish pathogens such as Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida and Vibrio anguillarum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Glob Antimicrob Resist
June 2022
Objectives: We evaluated the association of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-Kp) rectal colonisation with crude mortality and whether this association is independent of the risk of KPC-Kp infection.
Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of patients followed-up 90 days after a study of rectal colonisation.
Carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacilli (CR-GNB) are a critical public health threat, and carbapenem use contributes to their spread. Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) have proven successful in reducing antimicrobial use. However, evidence on the impact of carbapenem resistance remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe siderophore piscibactin is a key virulence factor involved in the iron uptake of pathogenic bacteria subsp. and , responsible for the fish diseases photobacterioisis (pasteurellosis) and vibriosis, respectively. A convergent total synthesis of its Ga complex using l-/d-cysteine as chiral agents and Meldrum's acid is described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegadenoson Stress Echocardiography (RSE) can detect myocardial ischemia, and its diagnostic accuracy should be evaluated. We sought to investigate the agreement between RSE and gated-SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and appraise its diagnostic accuracy. Consecutive patients (n = 202) referred for non-invasive evaluation of myocardial ischemia, with (38.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbapenemase-producing and specifically carbapenemase (KPC)-producing (KPC-Kp) are rapidly spreading worldwide. The prognosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by KPC-Kp is not well known. Our study tries to assess whether ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by a KPC-Kp strain is associated with higher all-cause mortality than that caused by carbapenem-susceptible isolates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: There is scarce information on the prognosis of urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by KPC carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-Kp).
Objetive: To investigate the association between KPC-Kp aetiology and clinical failure and all cause mortality and to explore the impact of inappropriate empirical treatment.
Material And Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of hospitalized patients with UTI due to K.
The high-mannose oligosaccharide (or its corresponding Man epitope) is the most abundant structure present in pathogen envelope glycoproteins. These glycans play a key role in the pathogenesis of several pathogens and also in the communication with the immune system. Understanding the mechanism of action of these glycans requires the access to pure and chemically well-defined structures in reasonable amounts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by loss of dopaminergic and serotoninergic signalling. A number of pathogenic mechanisms have been implicated including loss of mitochondrial function at the level of complex I, and lysosomal metabolism at the level of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase (GBA1). In order to investigate further the potential involvement of complex I and GBA1 in PD, we assessed the impact of loss of respective enzyme activities upon dopamine and serotonin turnover.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are transmembrane pattern-recognition receptors of the innate immune system recognizing diverse pathogen-derived and tissue damage-related ligands. It has been suggested that TLR signaling contributes to the pathogenesis of age-related, neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is associated to oligomers of the amyloid β peptide (Aβo) that cause intracellular Ca dishomeostasis and neuron cell death in rat hippocampal neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of the present work is to describe the experience with intravenous (IV) sildenafil in heart transplant (HT) patients with reactive pulmonary hypertension (PH) who developed right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) in the immediate postoperative period. The first 5 patients who received IV sildenafil followinga HT are presented. The HTs took place between March 2011 and September 2012 in patients aged 37 to 64 years; all patients were male.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe conformational state of 8-chloro-1-methyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine hydrochloride (lorcaserin) in water has been determined on the basis of one-bond and long-range C-H residual dipolar coupling (RDC) data along with DFT computations and (3)J(HH) coupling-constant analysis. According to this analysis, lorcaserin exists as a conformational equilibrium of two crown-chair forms, of which the preferred conformation has the methyl group in an equatorial orientation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: We investigated whether protein intake (PI) is related to osteoporotic fractures (OP) in the elderly by analyzing vegetable protein intake (VPI), animal protein intake (API), and animal/vegetable protein intake ratio (AVR) and by calcium intake (CaI).
Methods: A 1:1 matched by age and sex case-control study with 167 cases was carried out at the Hospital of Jaen (Spain). Cases were patients aged ≥65 years with a low-energy fracture.
Background: Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) has been associated with better mental and physical health particularly in cross-sectional studies. Purpose To longitudinally assess the association between LTPA, changes in LTPA and health-related quality of life (HRQL).
Methods: Cross-sectional and prospective analysis of the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra Project, a dynamic cohort study.
Residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) obtained in a stretched polydimethylsiloxane gel are applied to determine the 7-membered ring conformation in a 2-phenyl-3-benzazepine derivative, and to simultaneously assign all methylene proton pairs using only (1)D(CH) RDCs and DFT molecular modelling data.
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