Ongoing Outbreak of Extensively Drug-Resistant Campylobacter jejuni Infections Associated With US Pet Store Puppies, 2016-2020.

Importance: Extensively drug-resistant Campylobacter jejuni infections cannot be treated with any commonly recommended antibiotics and pose an increasing public health threat.

Objectives: To investigate cases of extensively drug-resistant C jejuni associated with pet store puppies and describe the epidemiologic and laboratory characteristics of these infections.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In August 2017, health officials identified, via survey, patients with C jejuni infections who reported contact with puppies sold by pet stores.

Replication of respiratory syncytial virus is inhibited by the host defense molecule viperin.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important viral pathogen of otitis media, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. As infection of the upper airways is a precondition for the development of these diseases, understanding RSV pathogenesis and the host response induced by RSV in this niche may enable the development of novel therapeutic strategies against this virus. We have used a microarray approach and showed that expression of the gene that encodes the antiviral protein viperin was significantly upregulated in the chinchilla nasopharynx up to 1 week after RSV challenge.

Extracellular DNA within a nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae-induced biofilm binds human beta defensin-3 and reduces its antimicrobial activity.

Biofilms formed by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI) are associated with multiple chronic infections of the airway, including otitis media. Extracellular DNA (eDNA) is part of the biofilm matrix and serves as a structural component. Human β-defensin-3 (hBD-3) is a cationic antimicrobial host defense protein (AMP) critical to the protection of the middle ear.

Respiratory syncytial virus promotes Moraxella catarrhalis-induced ascending experimental otitis media.

Otitis media (OM) is a polymicrobial disease wherein prior or concurrent infection with an upper respiratory tract virus plays an essential role, predisposing the middle ear to bacterial invasion. In episodes of acute bacterial OM, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most commonly isolated virus and thus serves as an important co-pathogen. Of the predominant bacterial agents of OM, the pathogenesis of disease due to Moraxella catarrhalis is the least well understood.

Ribonuclease 7 is a potent antimicrobial peptide within the human urinary tract.

Although the urinary tract is constantly challenged by microbial invasion, it remains free from colonization. Although little is known about how the urinary tract maintains sterility, the presence of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the urine suggests that they may play a role in its protection from infection. Ribonuclease 7 (RNase 7) is a potent AMP that was first identified in the skin.

Abrogation of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D function reduces phosphorylcholine decoration, adherence to airway epithelial cells, and fitness in a chinchilla model of otitis media.

The pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine which includes a nonacylated protein D carrier from Haemophilus influenzae has been recently licensed for use in many countries. While this vaccine is protective against nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI)-induced acute otitis media (OM), the mechanism underlying this protective efficacy is not yet fully understood. Protein D/glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase (PD/GlpQ) is an outer membrane lipoprotein expressed by NTHI that has been ascribed several functions, including host cell adherence and phosphorylcholine (PCho) acquisition.

The multifunctional host defense peptide SPLUNC1 is critical for homeostasis of the mammalian upper airway.

Otitis media (OM) is a highly prevalent pediatric disease caused by normal flora of the nasopharynx that ascend the Eustachian tube and enter the middle ear. As OM is a disease of opportunity, it is critical to gain an increased understanding of immune system components that are operational in the upper airway and aid in prevention of this disease. SPLUNC1 is an antimicrobial host defense peptide that is hypothesized to contribute to the health of the airway both through bactericidal and non-bactericidal mechanisms.

Respiratory syncytial virus-induced dysregulation of expression of a mucosal beta-defensin augments colonization of the upper airway by non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae.

Otitis media (OM) is a polymicrobial disease wherein upper respiratory tract viruses compromise host airway defences, which allows bacterial flora of the nasopharynx (NP) access to the middle ear. We have shown, in vitro, that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a viral co-pathogen of OM, reduces transcript abundance of the antimicrobial peptide (AP), chinchilla beta-defensin-1 (cBD-1). Here, we demonstrated that chinchillas inoculated with RSV expressed approximately 40% less cBD-1 mRNA and protein than did mock-challenged animals.

A carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 homologue plays a pivotal role in nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae colonization of the chinchilla nasopharynx via the outer membrane protein P5-homologous adhesin.

In vitro studies suggest an important role for CEACAM1 (carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1) in infection by multiple gram-negative bacteria. However, in vivo evidence supporting this role is lacking, largely because the bacterial adhesins involved in this host-microbe association do not bind to murine-derived CEACAM1. One of several adhesins expressed by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), the outer membrane protein P5-homologous adhesin (or P5), is essential for colonization of the chinchilla nasopharynx and infection of the middle ear.

Iron acquisition in the dental pathogen Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans: what does it use as a source and how does it get this essential metal?

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans requires iron to grow under limiting conditions imposed by synthetic and natural chelators. Although none of the strains tested used hemoglobin, lactoferrin or transferrin, all of them used FeCl3 and hemin as iron sources under chelated conditions. Dot-blot binding assays showed that all strains bind lactoferrin, hemoglobin, and hemin but not transferrin.

A member of the cathelicidin family of antimicrobial peptides is produced in the upper airway of the chinchilla and its mRNA expression is altered by common viral and bacterial co-pathogens of otitis media.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a component of the innate immune system, play a major role in defense of mucosal surfaces against a wide spectrum of microorganisms such as viral and bacterial co-pathogens of the polymicrobial disease otitis media (OM). To further understand the role of AMPs in OM, we cloned a cDNA encoding a cathelicidin homolog (cCRAMP) from upper respiratory tract (URT) mucosae of the chinchilla, the predominant host used to model experimental OM. Recombinant cCRAMP exhibited alpha-helical secondary structure and killed the three main bacterial pathogens of OM.

Characterization of the IgA1 protease from the Brazilian purpuric fever strain F3031 of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius.

Brazilian purpuric fever is a severe vascular disease caused by an invasive clone of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius, which normally causes self-limiting eye infections. A previous genome subtraction procedure resulted in the isolation of a DNA fragment, which encodes a putative IgA1 protease, specific to the F3031 Brazilian purpuric fever type strain. Cloning and sequencing of the entire F3031 iga1 gene showed that the subtracted DNA fragment encompasses the iga1 region encoding the active site and the cleavage specificity determinant of the protein, which are different from the cognate regions of the proteases produced by other H.

Genetic and functional analyses of the Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans AfeABCD siderophore-independent iron acquisition system.

The Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans afeABCD iron transport system, the expression of which is controlled by iron and Fur, was identified in three different isolates. The protein products of this locus are related to bacterial ABC transporters involved in metal transport. Transformation of the Escherichia coli 1017 iron acquisition mutant with a plasmid harboring afeABCD promoted cell growth under iron-chelated conditions.

Cloning and sequencing of a genomic island found in the Brazilian purpuric fever clone of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius.

A genomic island was identified in the Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF) strain F3031. This island, which was also found in other BPF isolates, could not be detected in non-BPF biogroup aegyptius strains or in nontypeable or typeable H. influenzae strains, with the exception of a region present in the type b Eagan strain.

Complete nucleotide sequence of Klebsiella pneumoniae multiresistance plasmid pJHCMW1.

The multiresistance plasmid pJHCMW1, harbored by a clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae strain isolated from a neonate with meningitis, was sequenced. A circular sequence of 11,354 bp was generated, of which 7,993 bp make up Tn1331, a transposon including the antibiotic resistance genes aac(6')-Ib, aadA1, bla(OXA-9), and bla(TEM-1). The gene aac(6')-Ib is included in a gene cassette, and both aadA1 and bla(OXA-9) are included in a single-gene cassette that may have arisen as a consequence of a recombination event involving two integrons.

Genomic analysis of the F3031 Brazilian purpuric fever clone of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius by PCR-based subtractive hybridization.

PCR-based subtractive genome hybridization produced clones harboring inserts present in Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF) prototype strain F3031 but absent in noninvasive Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius isolate F1947. Some of these inserts have no matches in the GenBank database, while others are similar to genes encoding either known or hypothetical proteins. One insert represents a 2.