Antibiofilm Activity of Epinecidin-1 and Its Variants Against Drug-Resistant and Isolates from Vaginal Candidiasis Patients.

Indwelling intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) have surfaces that facilitate the attachment of spp., creating a suitable environment for biofilm formation. Due to this, vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is frequently linked to IUD usage, necessitating the prompt removal of these devices for effective treatment.

Anticariogenic activity of marine brown algae and its active components towards .

is a well-recognized bacterium that plays a predominant role in the progression of dental caries. Its pathogenicity is linked to several key characteristics, including the ability to produce organic acids (acidogenicity), thrive in low pH environments (aciduricity), synthesize exopolysaccharides (EPS) glucosyltransferases, and form retentive biofilms. The treatment of dental caries with conventional antibiotics is often ineffective due to the bacterium's capacity to form recalcitrant biofilms.

as a Source of Quorum Sensing Inhibitors to Combat Antibiotic Resistance of Human and Aquaculture Pathogens.

Biofilms play a decisive role in the infectious process and the development of antibiotic resistance. The establishment of bacterial biofilms is regulated by a signal-mediated cell-cell communication process called "quorum sensing" (QS). The identification of quorum sensing inhibitors (QSI) to mitigate the QS process may facilitate the development of novel treatment strategies for biofilm-based infections.

Differential Expression of lncRNAs in HIV Patients with TB and HIV-TB with Anti-Retroviral Treatment.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among people with HIV-1 infection. To improve the diagnosis and treatment of HIV-TB patients, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying these conditions. Here, we used an integrated genomics approach to analyze and determine the lncRNAs that are dysregulated in HIV-TB patients and HIV-TB patients undergoing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) using a dataset available in the public domain.

The candidate vaccine derived from H37Rv is markedly immunogenic in macrophages and induces robust immunity to tuberculosis in mice.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant global health challenge, with approximately 1.5 million deaths per year. The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against TB is used in infants but shows variable protection.

Live Attenuated Vaccines against Tuberculosis: Targeting the Disruption of Genes Encoding the Secretory Proteins of Mycobacteria.

Tuberculosis (TB), a chronic infectious disease affecting humans, causes over 1.3 million deaths per year throughout the world. The current preventive vaccine BCG provides protection against childhood TB, but it fails to protect against pulmonary TB.

Pathogenic mycoplasmas of humans regulate the long noncoding RNAs in epithelial cells.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), specifically long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), regulate cellular processes by affecting gene expression at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and epigenetic levels. Emerging evidence indicates that pathogenic microbes dysregulate the expression of host lncRNAs to suppress cellular defense mechanisms and promote survival. To understand whether the pathogenic human mycoplasmas dysregulate host lncRNAs, we infected HeLa cells with (Mg) and (Mp) and assessed the expression of lncRNAs by directional RNA-seq analysis.

Mycobacterium smegmatis secreting methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA) modulates cellular processes in mouse macrophages.

Methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA) is an antioxidant repair enzyme that reduces the oxidized methionine (Met-O) in proteins to methionine (Met). Its pivotal role in the cellular processes has been well established by overexpressing, silencing, and knocking down MsrA or deleting the gene encoding MsrA in several species. We are specifically interested in understanding the role of secreted MsrA in bacterial pathogens.

Alteration of Cell Membrane Permeability by Cetyltrimethylammonium Chloride Induces Cell Death in Clinically Important Species.

The increased incidence of healthcare-related Candida infection has necessitated the use of effective disinfectants/antiseptics in healthcare settings as a preventive measure to decontaminate the hospital environment and stop the persistent colonization of the offending pathogens. Quanternary ammonium surfactants (QASs), with their promising antimicrobial efficacy, are considered as intriguing and appealing candidates for disinfectants. From this perspective, the present study investigated the antifungal efficacy and action mechanism of the QAS cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) against three clinically important Candida species: C.

Separation of Bioactive Small Molecules, Peptides from Natural Sources and Proteins from Microbes by Preparative Isoelectric Focusing (IEF) Method.

Natural products derived from plants and microbes are a rich source of bioactive molecules. Prior to their use, the active molecules from complex extracts must be purified for downstream applications. There are various chromatographic methods available for this purpose yet not all labs can afford high performance methods and isolation from complex biological samples can be difficult.

Broad-spectrum antifungal activities and mechanism of drimane sesquiterpenoids.

Eight drimane sesquiterpenoids including (-)-drimenol and (+)-albicanol were synthesized from (+)-sclareolide and evaluated for their antifungal activities. Three compounds, (-)-drimenol, (+)-albicanol, and (1,2,4a,8a)-2-hydroxy-2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-decahydronaphthalene-1-carbaldehyde (4) showed strong activity against . (-)-Drimenol, the strongest inhibitor of the three, (at concentrations of 8 - 64 µg/ml, causing 100% death of various fungi), acts not only against in a fungicidal manner, but also inhibits other fungi such as and fluconazole resistant strains of and These observations suggest that drimenol is a broad-spectrum antifungal agent.

Gymnemic Acids Inhibit Adhesive Nanofibrillar Mediated Mono-Species and Dual-Species Biofilms.

Dental caries and periodontitis are the most common oral disease of all age groups, affecting billions of people worldwide. These oral diseases are mostly associated with microbial biofilms in the oral cavity. , an early tooth colonizing bacterium and , an opportunistic pathogenic fungus, are the two abundant oral microbes that form mixed biofilms with augmented virulence, affecting oral health negatively.

Silver enhanced nano-gold dot blot immunoassay for leptospirosis.

Leptospirosis is a widespread zoonotic disease and lacks in efficient diagnostic tools. In the present study, a nanogold based dot blot immunoassay was developed and evaluated for the detection of leptospirosis in human urine samples. This method was found to be rapid (<4 h) with higher sensitivity (>4.

Influenza in Asthmatics: For Better or for Worse?

Asthma and influenza are two pathologic conditions of the respiratory tract that affect millions worldwide. Influenza virus of the 2009 pandemic was highly transmissible and caused severe respiratory disease in young and middle-aged individuals. Asthma was discovered to be an underlying co-morbidity that led to hospitalizations during this influenza pandemic albeit with less severe outcomes.

Heterologous DNA prime-protein boost immunization with RecA and FliD offers cross-clade protection against leptospiral infection.

The emergence of >300 serovars of Leptospira confounded the use of generalized bacterin, the whole cell lysate, as vaccines to control leptospirosis. Because of substantial genetic and geographic heterogeneity among circulating serovars, one vaccine strain per serovar cannot be efficacious against all the serovars. We have performed heterologous DNA prime-protein boost vaccination challenge studies in hamsters using in vivo expressed, leptospiral recombinase A (RecA) and flagellar hook associated protein (FliD).

Protective immunity of recombinant LipL21 and I-LipL21 against Leptospira interrogans serovar Autumnalis N2 infection.

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the spirochete of genus Leptospira with widespread distribution in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. Leptospirosis is often confused with other febrile illnesses including jaundice, dengue, and malaria. Generally, the disease is often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

Evaluation of combined B cell specific N-terminal immunogenic domains of LipL21 for diagnosis of leptospirosis.

Leptospiral outer membrane protein LipL21 and its truncated N-terminal immunogenic region (I-LipL21) were evaluated for diagnosis of leptospirosis. The complete coding sequence of LipL21 nucleotide sequence was subjected to BCPred and VaxiJen analysis for determination of B cell specific immunogenic epitopes. Epitope1 ACS STD TGQ KDA TTV GDG (1.

In Vivo-Expressed Proteins of Virulent Leptospira interrogans Serovar Autumnalis N2 Elicit Strong IgM Responses of Value in Conclusive Diagnosis.

Leptospirosis is a serious zoonosis that is underdiagnosed because of limited access to laboratory facilities in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Oceania. Timely diagnosis of locally distributed serovars of high virulence is crucial for successful care and outbreak management. Using pooled patient sera, an expression gene library of a virulent Leptospira interrogans serovar Autumnalis strain N2 isolated in South India was screened.

Lipopolysaccharide Specific Immunochromatography Based Lateral Flow Assay for Serogroup Specific Diagnosis of Leptospirosis in India.

Background: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging infectious disease that is under-recognized due to low-sensitivity and cumbersome serological tests. MAT is the gold standard test and it is the only serogroup specific test used till date. Rapid reliable alternative serogroup specific tests are needed for surveillance studies to identify locally circulating serogroups in the study area.

Pathogenic, diagnostic and vaccine potential of leptospiral outer membrane proteins (OMPs).

Pathogenic Leptospira species are important human and animal pathogen that causes leptospirosis, with more than half a million cases reported annually but little is known regarding the true incidence of leptospirosis due to the limitations in diagnosis. Proteins embedded in the outer membrane are found to be prime drug targets due to its key role as receptors for cellular communication and gatekeepers for iron and substrate transport across cell membranes. The major key issues to be addressed to overcome the disease burden of leptospirosis are: need to identify the genes that turn on in vivo; development of rapid diagnostic methods to facilitate the early diagnosis and to develop a universal vaccine.