Publications by authors named "Keira Cohen"

Continued improvements in the treatment of pulmonary infections have paradoxically resulted in a growing challenge of individuals with postinfectious pulmonary complications (PIPCs). PIPCs have been long recognized after tuberculosis, but recent experiences such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic have underscored the importance of PIPCs following other lower respiratory tract infections. Independent of the causative pathogen, most available studies of pulmonary infections focus on short-term outcomes rather than long-term morbidity among survivors.

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Purpose: To develop and evaluate a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model for the classification of acute and chronic lung nodules from nontuberculous mycobacterial-lung disease (NTM-LD) on computed tomography (CT).

Materials And Methods: We collected a data set of 650 nodules (316 acute and 334 chronic) from the CT scans of 110 patients with NTM-LD. The data set was divided into training, validation, and test sets in a ratio of 4:1:1.

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We isolated five Bacillaceae from a degraded wetland environment and sequenced their genomes using Illumina NextSeq. Here, we report draft genome sequences of SC119, strain SC120, strain SC123, strain SC124, and strain SC127. The genomes range between 3,657,353 and 5,772,725 bp with % GC between 37.

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Infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) continue to increase in prevalence, leading to problematic clinical outcomes. Omadacycline (OMC) is an aminomethylcycline antibiotic with FDA orphan drug and fast-track designations for pulmonary NTM infections, including (MAB). This multicenter retrospective study across 16 U.

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Pneumonia imposes a significant clinical burden on people with immunocompromising conditions. Millions of individuals live with compromised immunity because of cytotoxic cancer treatments, biological therapies, organ transplants, inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies, and other immune disorders. Despite broad awareness among clinicians that these patients are at increased risk for developing infectious pneumonia, immunocompromised people are often excluded from pneumonia clinical guidelines and treatment trials.

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An elderly man with refractory lung disease previously developed anti-phage neutralizing antibodies while receiving intravenous phage therapy. Subsequent phage nebulization resulted in transient weight gain, decreased C-reactive protein, and reduced burden. Weak sputum neutralization may have limited the outcomes, but phage resistance was not a contributing factor.

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Background: Nontuberculous Mycobacterium infections, particularly Mycobacterium abscessus, are increasingly common among patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic bronchiectatic lung diseases. Treatment is challenging due to intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Bacteriophage therapy represents a potentially novel approach.

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Mycobacterium abscessus (MAB) is an emerging pathogen that leads to chronic lung infections. To date, the global population structure of non-cystic fibrosis (CF) MAB and evolutionary patterns of drug resistance emergence have not been investigated. Here we construct a global dataset of 1,279 MAB whole genomes from CF or non-CF patients.

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An 81-year-old immunocompetent patient with bronchiectasis and refractory Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease was treated for 6 months with a three-phage cocktail active against the strain. In this case study of phage to lower infectious burden, intravenous administration was safe and reduced the M. abscessus sputum load tenfold within one month.

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Twelve patients were treated with omadacycline (OMC) as part of a multidrug regimen for . The majority of infections were of pulmonary origin (7/12; 58.3%).

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Tuberculosis (TB) continues to affect over 10 million people per year worldwide. Despite advances in diagnosis, smear microscopy insufficiently detects pulmonary disease, with test result reporting taking longer than a day. While urine assays to detect the lipopolysaccharide lipoarabinomannan (LAM), present in mycobacterial cell walls, can provide results within minutes, the currently available assay has low sensitivity and its application is limited to patients with HIV suspected of having TB.

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In 2019, the WHO tuberculosis (TB) treatment guidelines were updated to recommend only limited use of streptomycin, in favor of newer agents or amikacin as the preferred aminoglycoside for drug-resistant However, the emergence of resistance to newer drugs, such as bedaquiline, has prompted a reanalysis of antitubercular drugs in search of untapped potential. Using 211 clinical isolates of from South Africa, we performed phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) to aminoglycosides by both critical concentration and MIC determination in parallel with whole-genome sequencing to identify known genotypic resistance elements. Isolates with low-level streptomycin resistance mediated by were frequently misclassified with respect to streptomycin resistance when using the WHO-recommended critical concentration of 2 μg/ml.

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Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is composed of eight subspecies. TB in West Africa, in contrast to other geographical regions, is caused by Mycobacterium africanum (MAF) in addition to M. tuberculosis (MTB), with both infections presenting similar symptoms.

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(MAF) is known to endemically cause up to 40-50% of all pulmonary TB in West Africa. The aim of this study was to compare MAF with (MTB) with regard to time from symptom onset to TB diagnosis, and clinical and radiological characteristics. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bamako, Mali, between August 2014 and July 2016.

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Pediatric otomastoiditis due to can be a devastating infection that presents multiple treatment challenges. Van Wijk et al. report the use of a structured approach with a standardized regimen of intravenous (i.

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Tuberculosis (TB) is a global infectious threat that is intensified by an increasing incidence of highly drug-resistant disease. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, have greatly increased our understanding of this pathogen. Since the first M.

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Background: While the international spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains is an acknowledged public health threat, a broad and more comprehensive examination of the global spread of MDR-tuberculosis (TB) using whole-genome sequencing has not yet been performed.

Methods: In a global dataset of 5310 . whole-genome sequences isolated from five continents, we performed a phylogenetic analysis to identify and characterise clades of MDR-TB with respect to geographic dispersion.

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Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), however, the distribution and frequency of MTBC lineages and sublineages vary in different parts of the globe. Mycobacterium africanum, a member of MTBC is responsible for a large percentage of TB cases in West Africa, however, it is rarely identified outside of this part of the World. Whether or not differential HLA polymorphism (an important host factor) is contributing to the geographic restriction of M.

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β-lactams, the most widely used class of antibiotics, are well-tolerated, and their molecular mechanisms of action against many bacteria are well-documented. () is a highly drug-resistant rapidly-growing nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Only in recent years have we started to gain insight into the unique relationship between β-lactams and their targets in .

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As a growing number of clinical isolates of are resistant to most antibiotics, new treatment options that are effective against these drug-resistant strains are desperately needed. The majority of the linkages in the cell wall peptidoglycan of are synthesized by nonclassical transpeptidases, namely, the l,d-transpeptidases. Emerging evidence suggests that these enzymes represent a new molecular vulnerability in this pathogen.

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Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), caused by drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is an increasingly serious problem worldwide. Here we examined a data set of whole-genome sequences from 5,310 M. tuberculosis isolates from five continents.

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