Antimicrobial resistance of Helicobacter pylori in an eastern German region.

Background: Antimicrobial therapy is recommended to eradicate Helicobacter (H.) pylori in infected individuals. As first-line treatments are empiric, knowledge of antimicrobial resistance is key to successful eradication.

Retrospective study on outcome of salvage Helicobacter pylori eradication therapies based on molecular genetic susceptibility testing.

Background: Antimicrobial susceptibility of Helicobacter (H.) pylori is usually determined by phenotypic methods. When H.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation From Unrelated Donors in 2 Cases of Interleukin-10 Receptor Deficiency: Is Surgery Not a Requirement?

Mutations in interleukin-10 and its receptors cause infantile inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a hyperinflammatory disorder characterized by severe, treatment-refractory colitis, multiple abscesses, and enterocutaneous fistulas. Patients with infantile IBD often require several surgical interventions, including complete colectomy, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently the only known medical therapy. Traditionally, operative management has been preferred before stem cell transplantation because of the latter's increased susceptibility to procedural complications; however, surgical intervention could be delayed, and possibly reconsidered, because our 2 patients with infantile IBD demonstrated a rapid response to treatment via engraftment.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Arcobacter butzleri: development and application of a new protocol for broth microdilution.

Objectives: To develop a standard reference broth microdilution method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of Arcobacter butzleri. The protocol was subsequently applied to a collection of A. butzleri isolates from different sources.

Targeted Gene Panel Sequencing for Early-onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Chronic Diarrhea.

Background: In contrast to adult-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where many genetic loci have been shown to be involved in complex disease etiology, early-onset IBD (eoIBD) and associated syndromes can sometimes present as monogenic conditions. As a result, the clinical phenotype and ideal disease management in these patients often differ from those in adult-onset IBD. However, due to high costs and the complexity of data analysis, high-throughput screening for genetic causes has not yet become a standard part of the diagnostic work-up of eoIBD patients.

Autoantibodies against BAFF, APRIL or IL21 - an alternative pathogenesis for antibody-deficiencies?

Background: The ability of anti-cytokine antibodies to play a disease-causing role in the pathogenesis of immunodeficiencies is widely accepted. The aim of this study was to investigate whether autoantibodies against BAFF (important B cell survival signal), APRIL (important plasma cell survival signal), or Interleukin-21 (important cytokine for immunoglobulin class switch) present an alternative mechanism for the development of the following primary antibody deficiencies (PADs): common variable immune deficiency (CVID) or selective IgA deficiency (sIgAD).

Results: Two hundred thirty-two sera from patients with PADs were screened for autoantibodies against cytokines by ELISA.

Outcome of second- and third-line Helicobacter pylori eradication therapies based on antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the outcome of antimicrobial susceptibility-guided therapies in Helicobacter pylori-infected individuals who had undergone unsuccessful prior eradication treatments.

Methods: From October 2004 to December 2013, 481 H. pylori-positive patients with prior unsuccessful eradication treatments were administered susceptibility-guided salvage eradication treatments.

Prospective multicentre study on antimicrobial resistance of Helicobacter pylori in Germany.

Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance of Helicobacter pylori endangers the successful eradication of the bacteria. The aim of this prospective surveillance study (ResiNet) is to continuously keep antimicrobial resistance of H. pylori in Germany under surveillance and to identify risk factors for its development.

Evidence for non-neutralizing autoantibodies against IL-10 signalling components in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease constitutes a heterogeneous group of conditions, whose aetiology is only partly understood. The prevailing hypothesis on its pathogenesis is that IBD is the result of an inadequate immune response to the resident bacterial flora of the intestine. An autoimmune background, however, has been discussed since the 1950s.

High secondary resistance to quinolones in German Helicobacter pylori clinical isolates.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to update data on levofloxacin/ciprofloxacin and triple resistance (resistance to metronidazole, clarithromycin and levofloxacin/ciprofloxacin) in Helicobacter pylori clinical isolates and to identify the impact of prior eradication therapies on their development.

Methods: We tested the antimicrobial susceptibility to amoxicillin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, levofloxacin/ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and rifampicin of 5296 clinical H. pylori strains isolated between 2006 and 2011.

Clinical outcome in IL-10- and IL-10 receptor-deficient patients with or without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Background: Inherited deficiencies of IL-10 or IL-10 receptor (IL-10R) lead to immune dysregulation with life-threatening early-onset enterocolitis.

Objectives: We sought to gather clinical data of IL-10/IL-10R-deficient patients and devise guidelines for diagnosis and management, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

Methods: We enrolled 40 patients with early-onset enterocolitis and screened for mutations in IL10/IL10R using genetic studies, functional studies, or both of the IL-10 signaling pathway.

Interleukin-10 and interleukin-10-receptor defects in inflammatory bowel disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by abdominal pain, bloody diarrhoea, and malabsorption leading to weight loss. It is considered the result of inadequate control of an excessive reaction of the immune system to the resident flora of the gut. Like other primary immunodeficiencies, IL-10 and IL-10 receptor (IL10R) deficiency present with IBD and demonstrate the sensitivity of the intestine to any changes of the immune system.

IL-10 and IL-10 receptor defects in humans.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is chronic in nature and is characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, and malabsorption. It is considered a complex multigenic and multifactorial disorder that results from disturbed interactions between the immune system and commensal bacteria of the gut. Recent work has demonstrated that IBD with an early-onset within the first months of life can be monogenic: mutations in IL-10 or its receptor lead to a loss of IL-10 function and cause severe intractable enterocolitis in infants and small children.

Mutations in STAT3 and diagnostic guidelines for hyper-IgE syndrome.

Background: The hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES) is a primary immunodeficiency characterized by infections of the lung and skin, elevated serum IgE, and involvement of the soft and bony tissues. Recently, HIES has been associated with heterozygous dominant-negative mutations in the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and severe reductions of T(H)17 cells.

Objective: To determine whether there is a correlation between the genotype and the phenotype of patients with HIES and to establish diagnostic criteria to distinguish between STAT3 mutated and STAT3 wild-type patients.

Inflammatory bowel disease and mutations affecting the interleukin-10 receptor.

Background: The molecular cause of inflammatory bowel disease is largely unknown.

Methods: We performed genetic-linkage analysis and candidate-gene sequencing on samples from two unrelated consanguineous families with children who were affected by early-onset inflammatory bowel disease. We screened six additional patients with early-onset colitis for mutations in two candidate genes and carried out functional assays in patients' peripheral-blood mononuclear cells.

A homozygous CARD9 mutation in a family with susceptibility to fungal infections.

Background: Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis may be manifested as a primary immunodeficiency characterized by persistent or recurrent infections of the mucosa or the skin with candida species. Most cases are sporadic, but both autosomal dominant inheritance and autosomal recessive inheritance have been described.

Methods: We performed genetic studies in 36 members of a large, consanguineous five-generation family, in which 4 members had recurrent fungal infections and an additional 3 members died during adolescence, 2 after invasive infection of the brain with candida species.