Publications by authors named "Ghislaine Descours"

Currently there is no detailed, internationally agreed protocol defined to evaluate antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for Legionella pneumophila (required to establish epidemiological cut-off value or "ECOFF" boundaries); therefore, antimicrobial resistance in these isolates cannot be defined. AST methods utilising media containing activated charcoal as an ingredient, to enable Legionella growth, are unreliable as noted in an internationally authored opinion paper and a new gold standard is required. Here we define a detailed protocol for broth microdilution (BMD) using defined cell culture collection-deposited control reference strains (Philadelphia-1 and Knoxville-1) as well as two accessible reference strains with moderately (lpeAB-carrying) and markedly (23S rRNA mutation-carrying) elevated azithromycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: recovery from pulmonary samples is challenging due to the lack of a specific medium and the abundance of overgrown respiratory flora. This study aimed to compare the amoeba plate test (APT), an amoebic coculture with , with the axenic culture to recover from pulmonary samples. serial dilutions ( = 15 strains from seven species, concentrations ranging: 10-10 CFU/mL) in water and spiked overgrown sputa ( = 8) were simultaneously plated on agar with amoebic monolayer (APT) and without (control).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

No consensus exists about the techniques to use for microbiological diagnosis of bone and joint infections (BJIs). The objective herein was to define an algorithm to optimize BJI diagnosis in adults using various bacteriological methods on synovial fluid samples. This prospective multi-center study included 423 synovial fluids collected from adult patients with suspected BJIs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers measured cytokines and conducted immune functional assays to analyze the immune status of patients, finding increased levels of specific cytokines in those requiring mechanical ventilation (MV).
  • * Results indicate that severe LD patients exhibit a hyper-inflammatory response initially, followed by significant immunoparalysis affecting many cytokines, except for IL-18, which remained elevated in these individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Implementation of an antibiotic resistance detection tool in Legionella daily surveillance at the French National Reference Centre for Legionella.

Methods: Systematic WGS of Legionella pneumophila isolates and bioinformatics detection of specific mutations linked to antibiotic resistance. Phenotypic validation of antibiotic resistance detected by WGS was performed by the broth microdilution method.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A case of pneumonia was identified in a hospital setting, linked to a specific strain from serogroup 10, diagnosed using the Biofire® Pneumonia panel.
  • Researchers conducted molecular investigations to trace the source of the contamination that caused the infection.
  • The study highlights the importance of identifying environmental sources to prevent future cases of pneumonia in healthcare settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Legionella sainthelensi is a rare bacterium linked to severe cases of Legionnaires' disease, first isolated in 1980 from water near Mt. St-Helens, but there is limited data on it.
  • A documented case involved a 35-year-old woman with Sharp's syndrome, who developed severe pneumonia caused by L. sainthelensi after being treated with hydroxychloroquine and corticosteroids; she eventually improved with macrolide treatment in the ICU.
  • Currently, only 14 cases of L. sainthelensi infections have been reported globally, highlighting the challenge of diagnosing this pathogen, as common tests often miss it, leading to underdiagnosis in patients presenting with pneumonia symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We describe a March 2020 co-occurrence of Legionnaires' disease (LD) and coronavirus disease in France. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 co-infections were identified in 7 of 49 patients from LD case notifications. Most were elderly men with underlying conditions who had contracted severe pneumonia, illustrating the relevance of co-infection screening.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Legionella pneumophila, a Gram-negative bacillus, is the causative agent of Legionnaire's disease, a form of severe community-acquired pneumonia. Infection can have high morbidity, with a high proportion of patients requiring ICU admission, and up to 10% mortality, which is exacerbated by the lack of efficacy of typical empirical antibiotic therapy against Legionella spp. The fastidious nature of the entire Legionellaceae family historically required inclusion of activated charcoal in the solid medium to remove growth inhibitors, which inherently interferes with accurate antimicrobial susceptibility determination, an acknowledged methodological shortfall, now rectified by a new solid medium that gives results comparable to those of microbroth dilution.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We describe 2 cases of healthcare-associated Legionnaires' disease in patients in France hospitalized 5 months apart in the same room. Whole-genome sequencing analyses showed that clinical isolates from the patients and isolates from the room's toilet clustered together. Toilet contamination by Legionella pneumophila could lead to a risk for exposure through flushing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 urinary antigens is the most widely used technique for the diagnosis of Legionnaires' disease (LD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Legionella K-set® immunochromatographic test, in comparison with the BinaxNOW® Legionella urinary antigen card (UAC) on concentrated urine samples (US). A total of 250 concentrated US including 200 prospective US sent to the laboratory for urinary antigens' testing and 50 frozen US from patients with confirmed LD were tested.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: While Legionella is a common cause of pneumonia, extrapulmonary infections like arthritis are scarce. Here, we describe a case of monoarthritis due to Legionella bozemanii, with no history of pneumonia. We provide a literature review of the 9 previously published Legionella arthritis and highlight a dichotomous epidemiology suggesting different physiopathological pathways leading to joint infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Rarely, Legionnaires' disease (LD) can progress into a slowly or nonresolving form.

Methods: A nationwide retrospective study was conducted by the French National Reference Center for Legionella (2013-2017) including cases of slowly or nonresolving LD defined as persistent clinical symptoms, computed tomography (CT) scan abnormalities, and Legionella detection in lower respiratory tract specimens by culture and/or real-time (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) >30 days after symptom onset.

Results: Twelve cases of community-acquired slowly or nonresolving LD were identified among 1686 cases of culture-positive LD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) are critical steps in the management of bloodstream infections. Our objective was to evaluate the performance of the Accelerate Pheno™ System, CE v1.2 software, for identification and AST of Gram-negative pathogens from positive blood culture bottles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

-Translation is a ribosome-rescue system that is ubiquitous in bacteria. Small molecules defining a new family of oxadiazole compounds that inhibit -translation have been found to have broad-spectrum antibiotic activity. We sought to determine the activity of KKL-35, a potent member of the oxadiazole family, against the human pathogen and other related species that can also cause Legionnaires' disease (LD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Legionnaires' disease is a severe pneumonia mainly caused by Legionella pneumophila that is treated by antibiotics. The purpose of this study was to describe the susceptibility of clinical strains of L. pneumophila to eight antibiotics used for treatment of legionellosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Three urinary antigen tests were compared using purified Legionella pneumophila (Lp) LPS. For Lp serogroup1, Sofia®FIA and Binax®EIA limits of detection (LOD) were similar; that of BinaxNOW® lower. For all tests the LOD was higher with LPS from non-Pontiac compared to Pontiac-strains.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: A previous study on 12 in vitro -selected azithromycin-resistant Legionella pneumophila lineages showed that ribosomal mutations were major macrolide resistance determinants. In addition to these mechanisms that have been well described in many species, mutations upstream of lpeAB operon, homologous to acrAB in Escherichia coli , were identified in two lineages. In this study, we investigated the role of LpeAB and of these mutations in macrolide resistance of L.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Monitoring the emergence of antibiotic resistance is a recent issue in the treatment of Legionnaires' disease. Macrolides are recommended as first-line therapy, but resistance mechanisms have not been studied in species. Our aim was to determine the molecular basis of macrolide resistance in Twelve independent lineages from a common susceptible ancestral strain were propagated under conditions of erythromycin or azithromycin pressure to produce high-level macrolide resistance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Rapid antigen detection tests (RADTs) for group A streptococci (GAS) are widely used for diagnosing acute pharyngitis, which has led to a considerable reduction in antibiotic prescriptions over the past decade. Beyond this intended use, their reassessment on invasive samples may be relevant in the management of life-threatening GAS infections. To this end, we evaluated the performances of three RADTs, culture, GAS PCR, and 16S rRNA gene PCR assays, and compared them with a composite gold standard (GAS-PCR assay and/or culture) for the diagnosis of severe GAS infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Currently, several methods are used for the detection of Legionella in clinical samples, and these methods constitute part of the criteria for defining legionellosis cases. Urinary antigen detection is the first-line diagnostic test, although this test is limited to L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (Lp1) (Helbig et al.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A macrolide antimicrobial drug was administered to a newborn with cough. On day 23 of hospitalization, macrolide-resistant Bordetella pertussis was isolated from nasopharyngeal aspirates. DNA sequencing and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism showed a 2047 A-to-G mutation in the 3 copies of the 23S rRNA gene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Endemic strains of Legionella pneumophila sequence type 1 (ST1), in particular the ST1/Paris pulsotype, are dispersed worldwide and represent about 10% of culture-proven clinical cases of Legionnaires' disease in France. The high rate of isolation of this strain from both clinical and environmental samples makes identification of the source of infection difficult during epidemiological investigations. The full-length genome sequence of this strain was recently determined, and it revealed the presence of a CRISPR/cas complex.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF