Topical application of ozonated sunflower oil accelerates the healing of lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis in mice under meglumine antimoniate treatment
In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of ozonated sunflower oil as an adjuvant in treating cutaneous lesions caused byLeishmania amazonensis. BALB/c mice were infected withL. amazonensis, and after the lesions appeared, they were treated in four different schedules using the drug treatment with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime ®), with or without ozonated oil. After thirty days of treatment, the lesions' thickness and their parasitic burden, blood leukocytes, production of NO and cytokines from peritoneal macrophages and lymph node cells were analyzed. The group treated with ozonated oil plus meglumine antimoniate s...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - March 27, 2024 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

The Moraxella catarrhalis AdhC –FghA system is important for formaldehyde detoxification and protection against pulmonary clearance
AbstractMultidrug-resistant clinical isolates ofMoraxella catarrhalis have emerged, increasing the demand for the identification of new treatment and prevention strategies. A thorough understanding of howM. catarrhalis can establish an infection and respond to different stressors encountered in the host is crucial for new drug-target identification. Formaldehyde is a highly cytotoxic compound that can be produced endogenously as a by-product of metabolism and exogenously from environmental sources. Pathways responsible for formaldehyde detoxification are thus essential and are found in all domains of life. The current work...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - March 6, 2024 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Inflammation, the kynurenines, and mucosal injury during human experimental enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infection
AbstractEnterotoxigenicEscherichia coli (ETEC) is an important cause of diarrhea in children and travelers, especially in low- and middle-income countries. ETEC is a non-invasive gut pathogen colonizing the small intestinal wall before secreting diarrhea-inducing enterotoxins. We sought to investigate the impact of ETEC infection on local and systemic host defenses by examining plasma markers of inflammation and mucosal injury as well as kynurenine pathway metabolites. Plasma samples from 21 volunteers experimentally infected with ETEC were collected before and 1, 2, 3, and 7  days after ingesting the ETEC dose, and group...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - March 2, 2024 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Advances in the understanding of circRNAs that influence viral replication in host cells
AbstractCircular RNAs (circRNAs) are non-coding RNAs discovered in recent years, which are produced by back-splicing involving the 3 ’ and 5’ ends of RNA molecules. There is increasing evidence that circRNAs have important roles in cancer, neurological diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and other diseases. In addition, host circRNAs and virus-encoded circRNAs participate in the body’s immune response, wi th antiviral roles. This review summarizes the mechanisms by which host and viral circRNAs interact during the host immune response. Comprehensive investigations have revealed that host circRNAs f...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - February 8, 2024 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Echinacoside, a promising sortase A inhibitor, combined with vancomycin against murine models of MRSA-induced pneumonia
AbstractMethicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogenic bacterium responsible for a range of severe infections, such as skin infections, bacteremia, and pneumonia. Due to its antibiotic-resistant nature, current research focuses on targeting its virulence factors. Sortase A (SrtA) is a transpeptidase that anchors surface proteins to the bacterial cell wall and is involved in adhesion and invasion to host cells. Through fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), we identified echinacoside (ECH), a natural polyphenol, as a potential SrtA inhibitor with an IC50 of 38.42  μM in vitro. It was demonstrate...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - October 5, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Comparative genotyping of SARS-CoV-2 among Egyptian patients: near-full length genomic sequences versus selected spike and nucleocapsid regions
AbstractSeveral tools have been developed for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) genotyping based on either whole genome or spike sequencing. We aimed to highlight the molecular epidemiological landscape of SARS-CoV-2 in Egypt since the start of the pandemic, to describe discrepancies between the 3 typing tools: Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID), Nextclade, and Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (PANGOLIN) and to assess the fitness of spike and nucleocapsid regions for lineage assignment compared to the whole genome. A total of 3935 sequences isolate...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - October 4, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Expression of mammalian cell entry genes in clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis and the cell entry potential and immunological reactivity of the Rv0590A protein
AbstractMammalian cell entry (mce) operons play a vital role in cell invasion and survival ofM. tuberculosis. Of themce genes, the function ofRv0590A is still unknown. The present study was performed to investigate the function and immunogenic properties of the protein Rv0590A. Human leukemia monocytic cell line (THP-1) derived macrophages were infected withM. tuberculosis H37Rv at 3, 6, and 24  h of infection. The maximum colony forming units (CFU) were observed at 6 h (p <  0.005), followed by 3 h after infection.M. tuberculosis H37Rv and clinical isolates representative of Delhi/CAS, EAI, Beijing, Haarlem and ...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - October 3, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Prediction of outcome using CD14++CD16 −, CD14++CD16+ and CD14+CD16++ monocyte subpopulations in patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections
AbstractThere is still no study investigating the prognostic performance of CD14++CD16−, CD14++CD16+ and CD14+CD16++ monocyte subpopulations in complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs); therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between monocyte subtypes and outcome in such patients. A single-center prospective study was conducted at a University Hospital Stara Zagora between November 2018 and August 2021. Preoperatively and on the 3rd postoperative day (POD), we measured the levels of CD14++CD16−, CD14++CD16+ and CD14+CD16++ monocytes in peripheral blood using flow cytometry in 62 patients with cIAIs and 31...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - September 8, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Eicosapentaenoic acid influences the pathogenesis of Candida albicans in Caenorhabditis elegans via inhibition of hyphal formation and stimulation of the host immune response
AbstractThe intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), is associated with health benefits due to its anti-inflammatory properties. This fatty acid also exhibits antifungal properties in vitro. In order to determine if this antifungal property is valid in vivo, we examined how EPA affectsCandidaalbicans pathogenesis in theCaenorhabditiselegans infection model, an alternative to mammalian host models. The nematodes were supplemented with EPA prior to infection, and the influence of EPA onC.elegans lipid metabolism, survival and immune response was studied. In addition, the influence...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - September 6, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Histone methyltransferase SETD2 inhibits M1 macrophage polarization and glycolysis by suppressing HIF-1 α in sepsis-induced acute lung injury
This study focused on explicating the action of SETD2 on macrophage function in sepsis and the precise mechanism involved. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and Western blotting were used to determine expression. Luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay were conducted to detect the binding of SETD2 or H3K36me3 with the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, alpha subunit (Hif1a) gene. A sepsis-induced acute lung injury model was constructed via cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). SETD2 was decreased in RAW 264.7 cells stimulated by lipopolysaccharide...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - September 1, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

CD146 deficiency promotes inflammatory type 2 responses in pulmonary cryptococcosis
AbstractCryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen for pulmonary cryptococcosis. Previously, we demonstrated that CD146 mediated the adhesion ofC. neoformans to the airway epithelium. CD146 is more than an adhesion molecule. In the present study, we aimed to explore the roles of CD146 in the inflammatory response in pulmonary cryptococcosis. CD146 was decreased in lung tissues from patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis. Similarly,C. neoformans reduced pulmonary CD146 expression in mice following intratracheal inoculation. To explore the pathological roles of CD146 reduction in pu...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - August 31, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Ten rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 widely differ in their ability to detect Omicron-BA.4 and -BA.5
AbstractSince late 2021, the variant landscape of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been dominated by the variant of concern (VoC) Omicron and its sublineages. We and others have shown that the detection of Omicron-BA.1 and -BA.2-positive respiratory specimens by rapid antigen tests (RATs) is impaired compared to Delta VoC-containing samples. Here, in a single-center retrospective laboratory study, we evaluated the performance of ten most commonly used RATs for the detection of Omicron-BA.4 and -BA.5 infections. We used 171 respiratory swab specimens from SARS-CoV-2 RNA-positive patients,...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - August 10, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Automated antigen assays display a high heterogeneity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including several Omicron sublineages
AbstractDiagnostic tests for direct pathogen detection have been instrumental to contain the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Automated, quantitative, laboratory-based nucleocapsid antigen (Ag) tests for SARS-CoV-2 have been launched alongside nucleic acid-based test systems and point-of-care (POC) lateral-flow Ag tests. Here, we evaluated four commercial Ag tests on automated platforms for the detection of different sublineages of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VoC) (B.1.1.529) in comparison with “non-Omicron” VoCs. A total of 203 Omicron PCR-positive respiratory ...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - August 10, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

COVID-19 recurrence is related to disease-early profile T cells while detection of anti-S1 IgG is related to multifunctional T cells
In conclusion, the data suggest that recurrent disease is related to early-disease T cell profile and absence of anti-S1 IgG is related to lower multifunctional CD4 T cell response, what suggests possibility of new episodes of COVID-19 in these patients. (Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology)
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - July 25, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research

Antibody Fc-binding profiles and ACE2 affinity to SARS-CoV-2 RBD variants
AbstractEmerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, notably Omicron, continue to remain a formidable challenge to worldwide public health. The SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) is a hotspot for mutations, reflecting its critical role at the ACE2 interface during viral entry. Here, we comprehensively investigated the impact of RBD mutations, including 5 variants of concern (VOC) or interest —including Omicron (BA.2)—and 33 common point mutations, both on IgG recognition and ACE2-binding inhibition, as well as FcγRIIa- and FcγRIIIa-binding antibodies, in plasma from two-dose BNT162b2-vaccine recipients and mild-COVID-19 conva...
Source: Medical Microbiology and Immunology - July 21, 2023 Category: Microbiology Source Type: research