Rifaximin-resistant Clostridium difficile strains isolated from symptomatic patients.

Background: Rifaximin has been proposed as an alternative treatment for specific cases of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and intestinal decontamination. Rifaximin-resistant C. difficile has occasionally been reported.

Clinical significance of direct cytotoxicity and toxigenic culture in Clostridium difficile infection.

Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhoea in developed countries. Although an optimal diagnosis is crucial, laboratory diagnostics remain challenging. Currently, the reference methods are direct cytotoxicity assay and toxigenic culture; however there is controversy in the interpretation of discordant results of these tests.

Eplerenone enhances cardioprotective effects of standard heart failure therapy through matricellular proteins in hypertensive heart failure.

Aims: The addition of an aldosterone receptor antagonist on top of current optimal therapy (based on angiotensin II inhibition) has demonstrated an important clinical benefit in heart failure patients with systolic dysfunction. Whether this finding also applies to heart failure patients with preserved systolic function is unknown. Therefore, we have studied the effect of adding eplerenone to standard pharmacological heart failure therapy (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker and diuretic and β-blocker) in the progression of heart failure in spontaneously hypertensive heart failure (SHHF) rats.

Ezetimibe inhibits PMA-induced monocyte/macrophage differentiation by altering microRNA expression: a novel anti-atherosclerotic mechanism.

Ezetimibe, a selective inhibitor of intestinal cholesterol absorption, effectively reduces plasma cholesterol both in monotherapy or combined with a statin. However, its effect on atherosclerosis plaque progression is certainly unknown. MicroRNAs are short non-encoding RNA molecules dynamically implicated in monocytic differentiation which is considered an essential process during atherosclerosis development.