Specific preadaptations of Rhodococcus equi cooperate with its Virulence-associated protein A during macrophage infection.

Gram-positive Rhodococcus equi (Prescotella equi) is a lung pathogen of foals and immunocompromised humans. Intra-macrophage multiplication requires production of the bacterial Virulence-associated protein A (VapA) which is released into the phagosome lumen. VapA pH-neutralizes intracellular compartments allowing R.

Laboratory Plasticware Induces Expression of a Bacterial Virulence Factor.

Pollution with microplastic has become a prime environmental concern. The various ways in which human-made polymers and microorganisms interact are little understood, and this is particularly true for microplastic and pathogenic microorganisms. Previous reports demonstrated that expression of central virulence-associated protein A (VapA) of the pathogenic bacterium Rhodococcus equi is shut off at 30°C, whereas it is strongly expressed at 37°C, a temperature which may serve as an intrahost cue.

Longitudinal observation of anxiety and depression among palliative care cancer patients.

Background: Anxiety and depressive symptoms are commonly reported to have a high prevalence in advanced cancer patients. However, whether the severity of the symptoms change during a stay in a palliative care unit (PCU) and after discharge home has not been studied thus far. This prospective, longitudinal, single-center study screened for anxiety and depression as measured on the German version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) in a palliative care (PC) cancer cohort at three different time points.

Virulence-associated protein A from Rhodococcus equi is an intercompartmental pH-neutralising virulence factor.

Professional phagocytic cells such as macrophages are a central part of innate immune defence. They ingest microorganisms into membrane-bound compartments (phagosomes), which acidify and eventually fuse with lysosomes, exposing their contents to a microbicidal environment. Gram-positive Rhodococcus equi can cause pneumonia in young foals and in immunocompromised humans.

Electrophysiological assessment of the deltoid muscle after minimally invasive treatment of proximal humerus fractures - a clinical observation.

The minimal anterolateral acromial approach offers a less invasive access to the proximal humerus. Functional impairment following this procedure may be caused by paresis of the deltoid muscle as a result of iatrogenic injury to the axillary nerve. It was addressed whether electromyography (EMG) of the deltoid muscle gives evidence for an axillary nerve lesion in association with the minimal anterolateral acromial approach.