Evaluation of the inactivation effect of Triton X-100 on Ebola virus infectivity.

Background: The recent Ebola virus disease outbreak occurred in West Africa since December 2013 highlighted the need of appropriate virus inactivation procedures to be set up to allow the necessary processing of specimens outside BSL-4 facilities and to perform laboratory tests without affecting clinical decisions. For this purpose, international guidelines suggest the pre-treatment of the samples with Triton X-100.

Objectives: Due to the limited scientific evidence about the efficacy of Triton X-100 on enveloped-viruses, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of Triton X-100 on the virus infectivity and to establish the optimal conditions for its use.

Ceftaroline Plus Ampicillin Against Gram-Positive Organisms: Results from E-Test Synergy Assays.

In an era of increasing drug resistance and limited numbers of antimicrobials in the drug production pipeline, healthcare-associated infections represent a growing public health threat. When therapeutic options are limited, clinicians often resort to using antimicrobial combinations that produce a synergistic effect on the target pathogen. Novel antibiotics are therefore welcome in the daily practice of medicine.

Isolation of KPC 3-producing Enterobacter aerogenes in a patient colonized by MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae.

We describe the interspecies transmission of the plasmid-mediated blaKPC-3 gene, which confers carbapenem resistance, between clinically relevant gram-negative bacteria in a single patient. A KPC-3 producing Enterobacter aerogenes was isolated from a hospitalized patient previously colonized and then infected by a Klebsiella pneumoniae ST101 carrying the blaKPC-3 gene. The strains showed identical plasmids.

Invasive Candidiasis due to Candida Norvegensis in a Liver Transplant Patient: Case Report and Literature Review.

Candida norvegensis is an emerging fluconazole-resistant pathogen isolated in most cases from skin and mucous membranes of immunocompromized patients. Documented invasive candidiasis (IC) due to C. norvegensis has been rarely reported, thus the clinical features of patients at risk for this pathogen are poorly defined.

Cystic echinococcosis in a single tertiary care center in Rome, Italy.

Background: Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a chronic, clinically complex, and neglected disease. Its prevalence in Italy, a country of medium to high endemicity, remains poorly defined, as notification has long ceased to be mandatory.

Methods: We set up a retrospective cohort study involving all CE patients followed at our institute between January 2005 and December 2012.

In vitro activity of doripenem in combination with various antimicrobials against multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii: possible options for the treatment of complicated infection.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro activity of doripenem (DOR) alone and in combination with a variety of commonly used anti-Acinetobacter chemotherapeutic agents against 22 primary multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii isolates (including 17 isolates that were resistant to DOR) from Intensive Care Unit patients. Antibiotic interactions were evaluated using the chequerboard method and the time-kill assay.

Results: Considering all antimicrobials in combination with DOR, chequerboard analysis showed synergy in 13 A.

Clostridium difficile infection in Italian urban hospitals: data from 2006 through 2011.

Background: In developed countries, Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) represents an emerging threat in terms of morbidity and mortality rates. In our country limited CDI epidemiological data can be found.

Methods: Stool samples tested for C.

The superoxide reductase from the early diverging eukaryote Giardia intestinalis.

Unlike superoxide dismutases (SODs), superoxide reductases (SORs) eliminate superoxide anion (O(2)(•-)) not through its dismutation, but via reduction to hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) in the presence of an electron donor. The microaerobic protist Giardia intestinalis, responsible for a common intestinal disease in humans, though lacking SOD and other canonical reactive oxygen species-detoxifying systems, is among the very few eukaryotes encoding a SOR yet identified. In this study, the recombinant SOR from Giardia (SOR(Gi)) was purified and characterized by pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow spectrophotometry.

Salmonella enterica ssp. arizonae infection in a 43-year-old Italian man with hypoglobulinemia: a case report and review of the literature.

Introduction: Salmonella enterica ssp. arizonae is an uncommon human pathogen with serious infections reported in immunocompromised hosts. In Europe, only a few cases have been described.

Giardia intestinalis escapes oxidative stress by colonizing the small intestine: A molecular hypothesis.

Giardia intestinalis is the microaerophilic protozoon causing giardiasis, a common infectious intestinal disease. Giardia possesses an O(2) -scavenging activity likely essential for survival in the host. We report that Giardia trophozoites express the O(2) -detoxifying flavodiiron protein (FDP), detected by immunoblotting, and are able to reduce O(2) to H(2) O rapidly (∼3 μM O(2) × min × 10(6) cells at 37 °C) and with high affinity (C(50) = 3.

Flavohemoglobin and nitric oxide detoxification in the human protozoan parasite Giardia intestinalis.

Flavohemoglobins (flavoHbs), commonly found in bacteria and fungi, afford protection from nitrosative stress by degrading nitric oxide (NO) to nitrate. Giardia intestinalis, a microaerophilic parasite causing one of the most common intestinal human infectious diseases worldwide, is the only pathogenic protozoon as yet identified coding for a flavoHb. By NO amperometry we show that, in the presence of NADH, the recombinant Giardia flavoHb metabolizes NO with high efficacy under aerobic conditions (TN=116+/-10s(-1) at 1microM NO, T=37 degrees C).

Identification of clinically relevant yeast species by DNA sequence analysis of the D2 variable region of the 25-28S rRNA gene.

Clinically relevant yeasts are conventionally identified by a combination of phenotypic tests, which occasionally provide ambiguous results for atypical isolates or uncommon species. In this study, we evaluate a direct polymerase chain reaction-sequencing method, which exploits sequence divergence in the hypervariable D2 region of the large subunit of the 25-28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene for identification of facultative pathogenic asco- and basidiomycota. A panel of 53 yeasts, including 40 clinical isolates and 13 reference strains representative of some clinically relevant taxa, was investigated by combining standard phenotypic tests with commercial identification systems (RapID, API 20C AUX), and results were compared with the taxonomic allocations inferred by D2 sequence analysis.

HIV-related pneumococcal lung disease: does highly active antiretroviral therapy or bacteremia modify radiologic appearance?

We reviewed chest radiographs of 57 HIV-infected patients with pulmonary diseases in whom Streptococcus pneumoniae was the sole respiratory pathogen isolated to evaluate whether highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) or bacteremia modify radiographic appearance. Pneumococcal lung disease presented as lobar pneumonia in 40% of the cases, 54% of whom were on HAART; as bronchopneumonia in 42%, 58% on HAART; as interstitial infiltrates in 17%, 60% on HAART. Bacteremia was observed 38 times in 23 patients with CD4 less than 200/mm(3), and in 15 with CD4 greater than 200/mm(3) (p > 0.