1,217 results match your criteria: "Center for Microbiology[Affiliation]"

Purifying selection drives distinctive arsenic metabolism pathways in prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes.

ISME Commun

January 2024

Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environment, MARA, Beijing 100081, P.R. China.

Article Synopsis
  • Microbes are essential in the arsenic biogeochemical cycle, using unique metabolic pathways to cope with arsenic toxicity, but the differences in how prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes detoxify arsenic are not well understood.
  • Research identified a variety of arsenic biotransformation genes in 670 microbial genomes, revealing that prokaryotes have a broader range of genes for arsenic reduction and efflux while fungi possess more genes related to arsenic oxidation.
  • Findings show significant differences in gene expression and evolutionary rates between prokaryotes and fungi, underscoring the need to understand the diverse strategies microbes use for arsenic detoxification rather than focusing on individual genes.
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Article Synopsis
  • Cryptococcosis poses a major global health risk, prompting the need for fast and dependable diagnostic methods, particularly through point-of-care tests (POCTs) like the cryptococcal antigen semi-quantitative lateral flow assay (CrAgSQ).
  • Researchers developed an AI platform to automate the interpretation of LFA results, using a dataset of 1272 images collected from various CrAg concentrations, demonstrating improved sensitivity and accuracy compared to manual readings.
  • The AI system shows strong potential in transforming how cryptococcosis is diagnosed by providing consistent and efficient results, with implications for broader diagnostic applications beyond just cryptococcosis.
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() is a growing cause of nosocomial and antibiotic-resistant infections. Treating drug-resistant requires novel approaches. The use of bacteriophages (phages) against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria has recently garnered global attention.

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Acetate-producing var. strains could exert improved effects on ulcerative colitis, which here, was preclinically evaluated in an acute dextran sodium sulphate induced model of colitis. Nine-week-old female mice were divided into 12 groups, receiving either drinking water or 2.

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More than 3550 species of mosquitoes are known worldwide, and only a fraction is involved in the transmission of arboviruses. Mosquitoes in sylvatic and semi-sylvatic habitats may rapidly adapt to urban parks and metropolitan environments, increasing human contact. Many of these mosquitoes have been found naturally infected with arboviruses from the , , and families, with many being the cause of medically important diseases.

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Associations between gut microbiota and sarcopenia or its defining parameters in older adults: A systematic review.

J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle

December 2024

Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Division of Gerontology and Geriatrics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Altered gut microbiota (GM) potentially contribute to development or worsening of sarcopenia through a gut-muscle axis. This systematic review aims to compare GM between persons with sarcopenia or low sarcopenia-defining parameters (muscle mass, strength, and physical performance) to those with preserved muscle status, as well as to clarify possible associations between sarcopenia (-defining parameters) and relative abundance (RA) of GM-taxa or GM-(α- or β) diversity indices, in order to clarify whether there is robust evidence of the existence of a GM signature for sarcopenia. This systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA-reporting guideline and pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021259597).

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serovar Typhimurium (STm) causes gastroenteritis and can progress to reactive arthritis (ReA). STm forms biofilms in the gut that secrete the amyloid curli, which we previously demonstrated can trigger autoimmunity in mice. HLA-B27 is a genetic risk factor for ReA; activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) due to HLA-B27 misfolding is thought to play a critical role in ReA pathogenesis.

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Discovering new deep hydrothermal vent systems is one of the biggest challenges in ocean exploration. They are a unique window to elucidate the physical, geochemical, and biological processes that occur on the seafloor and are involved in the evolution of life on Earth. In this study, we present a molecular analysis of the microbial composition within the newly discovered hydrothermal vent field, , situated in the Southern Pescadero Basin within the Gulf of California.

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Emerging evidence suggests the gut microbiome's potential in predicting response to biologic treatments in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this prospective study, we aimed to predict treatment response to vedolizumab and ustekinumab, integrating clinical data, gut microbiome profiles based on metagenomic sequencing, and untargeted fecal metabolomics. We aimed to identify predictive biomarkers and attempted to replicate microbiome-based signals from previous studies.

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Insights into the evolution, virulence and speciation of and through multiomics analyses.

Emerg Microbes Infect

December 2024

Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.

Babesiosis, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus , is an emerging tick-borne disease of significance for both human and animal health. parasites infect erythrocytes of vertebrate hosts where they develop and multiply rapidly to cause the pathological symptoms associated with the disease. The identification of new species underscores the ongoing risk of zoonotic pathogens capable of infecting humans, a concern amplified by anthropogenic activities and environmental changes.

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Cisplatin remains the unchallenged standard therapy for NSCLC. However, it is not completely curative due to drug resistance and oxidative stress-induced toxicity. Drug resistance is linked to overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and aberrant calcium signalling.

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Lactate promotes the biofilm-to-invasive-planktonic transition in serovar Typhimurium via the purine pathway.

Infect Immun

October 2024

Center for Microbiology and Immunology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

serovar Typhimurium (. Typhimurium) infection triggers an inflammatory response that changes the concentration of metabolites in the gut impacting the luminal environment. Some of these environmental adjustments are conducive to .

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We have earlier established a direct measurement method for assessing stool physical consistency using a texture analyzer (TAXT). The present study aimed to evaluate the stool softening effect of strain Shirota (LcS) using TAXT in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Sixty-four healthy participants with a Bristol stool form scale (BSFS) 1/2 ≥ 50% during screening consumed fermented milk containing LcS or a placebo beverage daily for 8 weeks.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes virus-induced-senescence. There is an association between shorter telomere length (TL) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and hospitalization, severity, or even death. However, it remains unknown whether virus-induced-senescence is reversible.

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Advanced microbiome therapeutics have emerged as a powerful approach for the treatment of numerous diseases. While the genetic instability of genetically engineered microorganisms is a well-known challenge in the scale-up of biomanufacturing processes, it has not yet been investigated for advanced microbiome therapeutics. Here, the evolution of engineered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 strains producing Interleukin 2 and Aldafermin were investigated in two strain backgrounds with and without the three error-prone DNA polymerases polB, dinB, and umuDC, which contribute to the mutation rate of the host strain.

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Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) are crucial therapeutic targets for both the early and severe stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Chalcones and their chromone-based derivatives are well-known building blocks with anti-Alzheimer properties. This study synthesized 4-benzyloxychalcone derivatives and characterized their structures using IR, H NMR, C NMR, and HRMS.

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Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) has revolutionized the field of genome editing. To circumvent the permanent modifications made by traditional CRISPR techniques and facilitate the study of both essential and nonessential genes, CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) was developed. This gene-silencing technique employs a deactivated Cas effector protein and a guide RNA to block transcription initiation or elongation.

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Design of a Multiparametric Biosensing Platform and Its Validation in a Study on Spontaneous Cell Detachment from Temperature Gradients.

ACS Sens

August 2024

Laboratory for Soft Matter and Biophysics, ZMB, Department of Physics and Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium.

This article reports on a bioanalytical sensor device that hosts three different transducer principles: impedance spectroscopy, quartz-crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring, and the thermal-current-based heat-transfer method. These principles utilize a single chip, allowing one to perform either microbalance and heat transfer measurements in parallel or heat transfer and impedance measurements. When taking specific precautions, the three measurement modalities can even be used truly simultaneously.

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A Novel Cytotoxic Mechanism for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells Induced by the Type II Heat-Labile Enterotoxin LT-IIc through Ganglioside Ligation.

Toxins (Basel)

July 2024

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which constitutes 10-20 percent of all breast cancers, is aggressive, has high metastatic potential, and carries a poor prognosis due to limited treatment options. LT-IIc, a member of the type II subfamily of ADP-ribosylating-heat-labile enterotoxins that bind to a distinctive set of cell-surface ganglioside receptors-is cytotoxic toward TNBC cell lines, but has no cytotoxic activity for non-transformed breast epithelial cells. Here, primary TNBC cells, isolated from resected human tumors, showed an enhanced cytotoxic response specifically toward LT-IIc, in contrast to other enterotoxins that were tested.

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Article Synopsis
  • A research study analyzed genomic data from 250 fungal isolates (95 clinical and 155 environmental) across 9 countries to understand the population structure and its connection to pathogenicity in a saprotrophic fungus that's a significant threat to human health and agriculture.! -
  • Five distinct populations were identified, including a new one (Population D), with over 75% of clinical samples belonging to this group, indicating a strong link between population structure and human pathogenicity.! -
  • Population D contained more accessory genes related to zinc binding, lipid metabolism, and hydrolase activity, highlighting the potential for studying how specific genes within populations influence the fungus's ability to cause disease in humans.!
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This study represents the first analysis of the bacterial community in chickens affected by swollen head syndrome, utilizing 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Samples were obtained from clinical laying chickens and were examined for the presence of Avibacterium paragallinarum (APG) and Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) using conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). From the samples, five APG-positive (APG) and APG-negative (N-APG) samples were chosen, along with five specific pathogen-free chickens, for 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

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Background: The host cellular immune response associated with two treatments for post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) - paromomycin plus miltefosine (Arm 1), and liposomal amphotericin B plus miltefosine (Arm 2) - was examined in Sudanese patients before treatment (D0), at the end of treatment (D42), and during the post-treatment period (D180).

Methods: Whole blood samples were stimulated with soluble Leishmania antigen for 24 h (whole blood assay [WBA]) and the concentrations of Th1/Th2/Th17-associated cytokines, IP-10, PDL-1 and granzyme B were determined.

Results: The Arm 1 treatment (98.

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Informing pandemic management in Germany with trustworthy living evidence syntheses and guideline development: lessons learned from the COVID-19 evidence ecosystem.

J Clin Epidemiol

September 2024

Institute for Evidence in Medicine, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Straße 86, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany; Cochrane Germany, Cochrane Germany Foundation, Berliner Allee 2, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address:

Objectives: We present the 'COVID-19 evidence ecosystem' (CEOsys) as a German network to inform pandemic management and to support clinical and public health decision-making. We discuss challenges faced when organizing the ecosystem and derive lessons learned for similar networks acting during pandemics or health-related crises.

Study Design And Setting: Bringing together 18 university hospitals and additional institutions, CEOsys key activities included research prioritization, conducting living systematic reviews (LSRs), supporting evidence-based (living) guidelines, knowledge translation (KT), detecting research gaps, and deriving recommendations, backed by technical infrastructure and capacity building.

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