Molecular Characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains Isolated from Cutaneous Tuberculosis Patients in China.

Cutaneous tuberculosis (CTB) is probably underreported due to difficulties in detection and diagnosis. To address this issue, genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from 30 patients with CTB were mapped at multiple loci, namely, RD105 deletions, spacer oligonucleotides, and Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number Tandem Repeats (MIRU-VNTRs). Fifty-eight strains of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) were mapped as experimental controls.

Molecular insight into the differential anti-androgenic activity of resveratrol and its natural analogs: in silico approach to understand biological actions.

The androgen receptor (AR) is a therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate cancer. Androgen receptor reactivation during the androgen-independent stage of prostate cancer is mediated by numerous mechanisms including expression of AR mutants and splice variants that become non-responsive to conventional anti-androgenic agents. Resveratrol and its natural analogs exhibit varying degrees of anti-androgenic effects on tumor growth suppression in prostate cancer.

Dietary pterostilbene is a novel MTA1-targeted chemopreventive and therapeutic agent in prostate cancer.

Overexpression of the epigenetic modifier metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) is associated with aggressive human prostate cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine MTA1- targeted chemopreventive and therapeutic efficacy of pterostilbene, a natural potent analog of resveratrol, in pre-clinical models of prostate cancer. Here, we show that high levels of MTA1 expression in Pten-loss prostate cooperate with key oncogenes, including c-Myc and Akt among others, to promote prostate cancer progression.

[Longitudinal study on infantile nocturnal sleep-wake pattern developmental trajectory with Actiwatch].

Objective: To understand the infantile nocturnal sleep-wake pattern developmental trajectory with Actiwatch, which would benefit the clinical assessment of infantile sleep.

Method: This study was a longitudinal study conducted between 7 Oct, 2009-30 Oct, 2011 in 10 hospitals of 9 cities of China ( Beijing, Xi'an, Qingdao, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, Huzhou, Xiamen and Liuzhou). Actiwatch was used to track the sleep-wake pattern development trajectory of healthy infants in the first year of life in the home setting.

Nuclear MTA1 overexpression is associated with aggressive prostate cancer, recurrence and metastasis in African Americans.

Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1), a negative epigenetic modifier, plays a critical role in prostate cancer (PCa) progression. We hypothesized that MTA1 overexpression in primary tumor tissues can predict PCa aggressiveness and metastasis. Immunohistochemical staining of MTA1 was done on archival PCa specimens from University of Mississippi Medical Center and University of Iowa.

Differing lifestyles of Staphylococcus epidermidis as revealed through Bayesian clustering of multilocus sequence types.

Staphylococcus epidermidis is part of the normal bacterial flora of human skin and a leading cause of infections associated with indwelling medical devices. Previous phylogenetic analyses of subgenomic data have been unable to distinguish between S. epidermidis strains with nosocomial or commensal lifestyles, despite the identification of specific phenotypes and accessory genes that may contribute to such lifestyles.

Multilocus sequence typing and further genetic characterization of the enigmatic pathogen, Staphylococcus hominis.

Staphylococcus hominis is a commensal resident of human skin and an opportunistic pathogen. The species is subdivided into two subspecies, S. hominis subsp.

Molecular signatures identify a candidate target of balancing selection in an arcD-like gene of Staphylococcus epidermidis.

A comparative population genetics study revealed high levels of nucleotide polymorphism and intermediate-frequency alleles in an arcC gene of Staphylococcus epidermidis, but not in a homologous gene of the more aggressive human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus. Further investigation showed that the arcC genes used in the multilocus sequence typing schemes of these two species were paralogs. Phylogenetic analyses of arcC-containing loci, including the arginine catabolic mobile element, from both species, suggested that these loci had an eventful history involving gene duplications, rearrangements, deletions, and horizontal transfers.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus sequence type 239-III, Ohio, USA, 2007-2009.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a human pathogen that has diverse molecular heterogeneity. Most MRSA strains in the United States are pulsed-field gel electrophoresis USA100 sequence type (ST) 5 and USA300 ST8. Infections with MRSA ST239-III are common and found during health care-associated outbreaks.

Diversity of potential short tandem repeats in Mycobacterium leprae and application for molecular typing.

A recent advance in molecular typing for tracing the transmission of leprosy is the discovery of short tandem repeats (STRs) in Mycobacterium leprae. To substantiate polymorphic loci from STR as promising candidates for molecular typing tools in leprosy epidemiology, 44 STR loci including 33 microsatellites and 11 minisatellites were investigated among 27 laboratory strains by sequencing PCR products. Not all STRs were necessarily polymorphic.

A mutation at codon 516 in the rpoB gene of Mycobacterium leprae confers resistance to rifampin.

A missense mutation at codon 516 in the rpoB gene of Mycobacterium leprae conferring rifampin resistance was confirmed by the correlation between sequencing results and mouse footpad assay. The isolate was obtained from a relapsed lepromatous leprosy patient. This is the first report on the complete concordance between the mutation located at codon 516 in the rpoB gene and the corresponding resistance to rifampin in leprosy.

Polymorphism in the rpoT gene in Mycobacterium leprae isolates obtained from Latin American countries and its possible correlation with the spread of leprosy.

The genotypes of Mycobacterium leprae isolates originating from Mexico, Peru and Paraguay were analysed for the polymorphism of short tandem repeats in the rpoT gene. The genotype with four copies of the six-base tandem repeats in the rpoT gene was prominently predominant in Mexico, but the genotype of all isolates from Peru and Paraguay contained three copies of the six-base tandem repeats. These obvious different distributions might reflect the spread of leprosy by the different strains of M.

[Molecular epidemiology of the leprosy].

Application of molecular biological techniques to the epidemiological study of leprosy is described. Studies of detecting Mycobacterium leprae DNA in samples of the nasal mucus are discussed in terms of the epidemiology and the significance of high prevalence. Epidemiological studies on the transmission of leprosy and correlation between geographic distribution of different M.

Genotyping of Mycobacterium leprae on the basis of the polymorphism of TTC repeats for analysis of leprosy transmission.

The polymorphism of TTC repeats in Mycobacterium leprae was examined using the bacilli obtained from residents in villages at North Maluku where M. leprae infections are highly endemic (as well as from patients at North Sulawesi of Indonesia) to elucidate the possible mode of leprosy transmission. TTC genotypes are stable for several generations of passages in nude mice footpads and, hence, are feasible for the genotyping of isolates and epidemiological analysis of leprosy transmission.

A second case of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium leprae isolated from a Japanese patient with relapsed lepromatous leprosy.

Emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium leprae was reported soon after the introduction of dapsone (diamino-diphenyl sulphone, DDS) for leprosy treatment (6, 10, 11). Three cases of multidrug-resistant strains of M. leprae have been reported recently (2, 8, 9, 13).

Leprosy in China.

Leprosy has definitely been present in China for at least 2,000 years. Through painstaking efforts over the past half century, China has put leprosy under control and reached the WHO's target at elimination of leprosy at the national and subnational level. But difficulties as well as problems like disabilities, discrimination, drug-resistance and dismissing of research still remain in the control of leprosy.

A study on a possibility of predicting early relapse in leprosy using a ND-O-BSA based ELISA.

Serological methods have been used for detecting infection with Mycobacterium leprae. We have applied a serological test to explore the possibility it could detect a bacterial relapse among patients who have been cured with chemotherapy. More specifically we used an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) using the natural disaccharide (ND) of the phenolic glycolipid antigen of M.