Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023241 (Legionella)
 6,990 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This replication method, which was introduced in 1985, has been used to find and identify microorganisms in the environment, among others in samples of soil, sediments and waters. A gene or a DNA fragment specific to a microorganism is replicated in vitro by a chain reaction catalyzed by DNA polymerase (PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction) and analyzed by electrophoretic procedures. At the moment in most legislations bacteriological criteria for drinking water depend on E. coli and other bacteria referring to fecal contamination (fecal coliforms and enterococci). Absence of these bacteria does not necessarily exclude contamination of water with protozoa or virus. Detection of the latter by common methods is difficult and time-consuming. Application of PCR to these purposes is interesting. During the last years several protocols have been developed such as methods for the detection of E. coli, bacteria referring to fecal contamination, pathogens like Legionella pneumophila as well as Salmonella and Shigella, enterovirus and protozoa i.e. Giardia. Compared to the traditional methods an obvious advantage of the new methods lies in their velocity, sensitivity and specificity. This review introduces to several different applications of PCR. Although this method is still restricted to specialized laboratories at the moment, it will gain importance as a complement to traditional methods for the detection of pathogenic microorganisms in water as soon as simple tests will be available.
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PMID:[The use of PCR for detecting pathogenic microorganisms in water]. 820 34

Legionella is a common cause of community-acquired respiratory tract infections and occasionally causes nosocomial pneumonia. Rapid and accurate detection of legionellae is important for diagnosis and treatment of patients. In order to detect legionellae, a new DNA amplification method was designed and evaluated. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method amplifies DNA with high specificity, sensitivity, and rapidity under isothermal conditions at 65 degrees C. This method employs a DNA polymerase with strand displacement activity and a set of four specially designed primers that recognize a total of six distinct sequences on the target DNA. The primers targeting 16S rRNA gene were designed in order to detect a wide range of Legionella species. We could specifically detect Legionella species including Legionella pneumophila, Legionella anisa, Legionella bozemanii, Legionella dumoffii, Legionella erythra, Legionella feeleii, Legionella gormanii, Legionella longbeachae, Legionella micdadei, Legionella oakridgensis, and Legionella sainthelensi. The detection limit of the assay was 6 cfu per test of L. pneumophila strain. Furthermore, all of the positive LAMP results could be obtained within 50 minutes. The LAMP method was able to detect a wide range of Legionella species with high specificity, sensitivity, rapidity, and a simple procedure.
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PMID:[Rapid and simple detection of Legionella species by LAMP, a mew DNA amplification method]. 1498 4

Tap water is one of the causative factors of hospital infections. We examined the disinfective potential of electrolysis and mechanism of disinfection, and clarified the disinfective effect of electrolysis on tap water contaminated with bacteria, and discussed its clinical applications. Tap waters artificially contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Legionella pneumophila, and Staphylococcus aureus could be sterilized by electrolysis at 20-30 mA for 5 min. A high-density suspension (10(6) CFU/ml) of a spore forming bacterium, Bacillus subtilis was not completely sterilized by electrolysis at 50 mA up to 30 min, but a low-density suspension (10(5) CFU/ml) was totally sterilized by electrolysis at 50 mA for 5 min. Electrolyzed P. aeruginosa changed morphologically, that is, there was bleb formation on the cell wall and irregular aggregation of cytoplasmic small granules. Moreover, cytoplasmic enzyme, nitrate reductase, was inactivated by the electrolysis. On the other hand, genomic DNA of the electrolyzed bacteria was not degenerated, therefore, their DNA polymerase activity was not completely inactivated. Consequently, the major agent in electrolysis for bactericidal action was considered to be free chlorine, and the possible bactericidal mechanism was by destruction of bacterial membranes, followed by the aggregation of peripheral cytoplasmic proteins. Electrolysis of tap water for both disinfecting contaminating bacteria and increasing the disinfectant capacity was considered effective with some limitations, particularly against high-density contamination by spore-forming bacteria. In clinical settings, electrolysis of tap water is considered effective to disinfect water for hand washing in operation theatres, and bathing water for immunocompromised hosts.
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PMID:Evaluation of disinfective potential of reactivated free chlorine in pooled tap water by electrolysis. 1506 56

The complete nucleotide sequence of a large (66 kb) plasmid pLD-TEX-KL of Legionella dumoffii TEX-KL strain was determined. Of the 57 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), 39 (68%) encoded proteins similar to previously known proteins, five (9%) were assigned with putative functions, three (5%) encoded conserved hypothetical proteins, and 10 (18%) had no homology to any genes present in the current open databases. The ORFs with similar functions were organized in a modular structure; thus, transfer region was identified, as well as a putative heavy-metal ion transporter system (hel). The transfer region encoded homologs of the Salmonella entrica serovar Typhi conjugative system components involved in conjugation. In addition, we also found a potential protein that was analogous to the DNA polymerase III epsilon subunit. It is rarely found that plasmid encode the DNA polymerase.
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PMID:Complete nucleotide sequence of pLD-TEX-KL, a 66-kb plasmid of Legionella dumoffii TEX-KL strain. 1788 Oct 53