Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026918 (Mycobacterium)
 52,428 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Linear peptides (SynB vectors) with specific sequence motifs have been identified that are capable of enhancing the transport of a wide range of molecules into cells. These peptide vectors have been used to deliver exogenous peptides and protein Ags across the cell membrane and into the cytoplasm of cells. Specifically, in vitro analysis indicated that these SynB peptides enhanced the uptake of two 9-mer peptide Ags, NP(147-155) and Mtb(250-258) (T cell epitopes of influenza nucleoprotein and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, respectively) and the M. tuberculosis Ag Mtb8.4 protein, into K562 cells when covalently linked to the respective Ags. Furthermore, selected SynB vectors, when conjugated to these same Ags and used as immunogens, resulted in considerably enhanced Ag-specific CTL responses. Several SynB vectors were tested and resulted in varying levels of cellular uptake. The efficiency of uptake correlated with the ability of the SynB construct to deliver each epitope in vivo and induce specific CTL responses in mice. These data suggest that peptide vectors, such as SynB that transport target Ags across the cell membrane in a highly efficient manner, have significant potential for vaccine delivery.
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PMID:Induction of antigen-specific CTL responses using antigens conjugated to short peptide vectors. 1253 13

Because cultures of mycobacteria and viruses take a great number of days, the results are delayed in these clinical laboratory tests. For this reason, rapid diagnostic tests without these cultures are required. Among the laboratory tests of mycobacteria, acid-fast stain as a rapid diagnostic test is the first to give significant information to laboratory staffs and physicians. There are mainly two procedures, directly smearing clinical specimens and smearing concentrated specimens treated with NALC-NaOH on slide glass. The former is performed for specimens from emergency patients. When a patient is suspected of tuberculosis, a DNA-amplification test such as COBAS AMPLICOR TEST (PCR test) is performed for directly detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical specimens, regardless of whether the specimens show positive or negative by acid-fast stain. Sixty-one of 1,023 specimens tested in Showa University Fujigaoka Hospital in February 2000-May 2002 were found positive by both PCR and culture tests. Fourteen were found negative by PCR test and positive by culture test. Five were found positive by PCR test and negative by culture test. Alternatively, MTB-64 (Capilia TB) is a kit for rapidly identifying M. tuberculosis using colonies. The time necessary for completion of the test was approximately 15 minutes per sample. In our study, the identification test showed weak-positive for 2 strains of M. marinum (ATCC927 and one clinical isolate), compared with positive for 28 clinical isolates and strain H37Ra of M. tuberculosis. Recently, rapid diagnostic kits for detecting various pathogenic viruses have been developed. The kits for detecting influenza virus are in especially great demand with the spread of newly-developed antiviral agents. There was an epidemic of the type A virus in the winters 2001-2002. 101 (32%) of 316 clinical specimens tested in the hospital were found positive with InfluA. B-Quick [SEIKEN] (Denka) or Directigen Flu A (Becton Dickinson). These kits showed high utility. Also, Abbot TESTPACK RSV (Dainabot) for detecting RS virus and ROTALEX DRY (Orion Diagnostica) for detecting rotavirus showed high utility. However, these rapid diagnostic kits have weak points: high costs, false positives and false negatives. Thus, more improvements are required.
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PMID:[Practical evaluation of rapid diagnostic tests for mycobacteriosis and virus infection]. 1254 95

This review describes the microbiology, diagnosis and management of suppurative thyroiditis (ST). Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus epidermidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, are the predominant aerobic isolates. The most common anaerobic bacteria are Gram-negative bacilli and Peptostreptococcus spp. Agents that are rarely recovered include Klebsiella spp., Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus viridans, Salmonella spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, atypical mycobacteria, Aspergillus spp., Coccidioides immitis, Candida spp., Treponema pallidum, and Echinococcus spp. Viruses have been associated with subacute thyroiditis, and include measles, mumps, influenza, enterovirus Epstein-barr, adenovirus, echovirus, and St Louis encephalitis. Therapy includes administration of antibiotics effective against the causative pathogen(s). Proper selection of therapy can be guided by culture of the lesion. Surgical drainage may be necessary in case of suppuration.
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PMID:Microbiology and management of acute suppurative thyroiditis in children. 1269 45

To investigate the present state and the disadvantages of rapid diagnosis methods in clinical microbiology in Japan, We have conducted a questionnaire survey of 360 medical facilities accredited by the Japanese Association for Rapid Method and Automation in Microbiology (JARMAM). Major rapid diagnosis methods being used in clinical microbiology are, in the order of its use rate, influenza virus, adenovirus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Clostridium difficile toxin A, Rotavirus, hepatitis B virus, group A Streptococcus, RS virus, hepatitis C virus antibody. The fact found by this survey is that there is some gap between two groups, as one group views that the result of rapid diagnosis method can be considered as the final, another views that it is a supplementary diagnosis under conventional methods such as culturing. Some problems related to rapid diagnosis methods are also pointed out; how to interpret and report a test result obtained by the rapid diagnosis method when it is different from that of culture method, it can not perform antibiotic sensitivity tests, a problem of non-specific reaction, comparatively higher cost of rapid diagnosis kits. This survey finds that rapid diagnosis methods have greatly contributed to early medical treatment and appropriate therapy with its quickness, such as the use of rapid diagnosis kits for bacterial meningitis or viral infectious diseases requiring clinical urgency is highly necessitated even though some problems mentioned above exist.
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PMID:[Present state and disadvantage of rapid diagnosis method in clinical microbiology--analysis of questionnaire survey]. 1450 45

A 9.5-kb section of DNA called region of deletion 1 (RD1) is present in virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains but is deleted in all attenuated Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine strains. This region codes for at least nine genes. Some or all RD1 gene products may be involved in virulence and pathogenesis, and at least two, ESAT-6 and CFP-10, represent potent T- and B-cell antigens. In order to produce the entire set of RD1 proteins with their natural posttranslational modifications, a robust expression system for M. tuberculosis proteins in the fast-growing saprophytic strain Mycobacterium smegmatis was developed. Our system employs the inducible acetamidase promoter and allows translational fusion of recombinant M. tuberculosis proteins with polyhistidine or influenza hemagglutinin epitope tags for affinity purification. Using eGFP as reporter gene, we showed that the acetamidase promoter is tightly regulated in M. smegmatis and that this promoter is much stronger than the widely used constitutive groEL2 promoter. We then cloned 11 open reading frames (ORFs) found within RD1 and successfully expressed and purified the respective proteins. Sera from tuberculosis patients and M. tuberculosis-infected mice reacted with 10 purified RD1 proteins, thus demonstrating that Rv3871, Rv3872, Rv3873, CFP-10, ESAT-6, Rv3876, Rv3878, Rv3879c and ORF-14 are expressed in vivo. Finally, glycosylation of the RD1 proteins was analyzed. We present preliminary evidence that the PPE protein Rv3873 is glycosylated at its C terminus, thus highlighting the ability of M. smegmatis to produce M. tuberculosis proteins bearing posttranslational modifications.
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PMID:The RD1 proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: expression in Mycobacterium smegmatis and biochemical characterization. 1455 49

To investigate encephalitis in Taiwan, a multicenter study was conducted with patients who had acute severe neurological dysfunction and suspected encephalitis from May 2000 to December 2001. Demographic data such as age, sex, and seasons were analyzed. Polymerase chain reaction analyses were performed to determine the microbiologic diagnosis. The patients included 73 males and 54 females, with a peak age of 10-40 years old. Microbiologic diagnoses in 86 (69%) of 124 cases involved herpes simplex virus (HSV, 45 cases), varicella zoster (16 cases), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (10 cases), cytomegalovirus (8 cases), adenovirus (5 cases), influenza (1 case), and enterovirus (1 case). Pathogens were found in 69% of the cases. Encephalitis was most likely to occur in June and July. Based on the results, HSV is still the major viral cause of encephalitis in Taiwan.
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PMID:Encephalitis in Taiwan: a prospective hospital-based study. 1469 29

Intraspecies genetic diversity has been demonstrated to be important in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of several pathogens, such as HIV, influenza, Helicobacter and Salmonella. It is also important to consider strain-to-strain variation when identifying drug targets and vaccine antigens and developing tools for molecular diagnostics. Here, the authors present a description of the variability in gene expression patterns among ten clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, plus the laboratory strains H37Rv and H37Ra, growing in liquid culture. They identified 527 genes (15 % of those tested) that are variably expressed among the isolates studied. The remaining genes were divided into three categories based on their expression levels: unexpressed (38 %), low to undetectable expression (31 %) and consistently expressed (16 %). The expression categories were compared with functional categories and three biologically interesting gene lists: genes that are deleted among clinical isolates, T-cell antigens and essential genes. There were significant associations between expression variability and the classification of genes as T-cell antigens, involved in lipid metabolism, PE/PPE, insertion sequences and phages, and deleted among clinical isolates. This survey of mRNA expression among clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis demonstrates that genes with important functions can vary in their expression levels between strains grown under identical conditions.
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PMID:Gene expression diversity among Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates. 1563 20

The potential for transport and dissemination of certain pathogenic microorganisms by migratory birds is of concern. Migratory birds might be involved in dispersal of microorganisms as their biological carriers, mechanical carriers, or as carriers of infected hematophagous ecto-parasites (e.g., ixodid ticks). Many species of microorganisms pathogenic to homeothermic vertebrates including humans have been associated with free-living migratory birds. Migratory birds of diverse species can play significant roles in the ecology and circulation of some arboviruses (e.g., eastern and western equine encephalomyelitis and Sindbis alphaviruses, West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis flaviviruses), influenza A virus, Newcastle disease virus, duck plague herpes-virus, Chlamydophila psittaci, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella enterica, Pasteurella multocida, Mycobacterium avium, Candida spp., and avian hematozoans. The efficiency of dispersal of pathogenic microorganisms depends on a wide variety of biotic and abiotic factors affecting the survival of the agent in, or disappearance from, a habitat or ecosystem in a new geographic area.
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PMID:An annotated checklist of pathogenic microorganisms associated with migratory birds. 1565 82

Recent studies have provided evolutionary explanations for much of the variation in mortality among human infectious diseases. One gap in this knowledge concerns respiratory tract pathogens transmitted from person to person by direct contact or through environmental contamination. The sit-and-wait hypothesis predicts that virulence should be positively correlated with durability in the external environment because high durability reduces the dependence of transmission on host mobility. Reviewing the epidemiological and medical literature, we confirm this prediction for respiratory tract pathogens of humans. Our results clearly distinguish a high-virulence high-survival group of variola (smallpox) virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cornynebacterium diphtheriae, Bordetella pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and influenza virus (where all pathogens have a mean percent mortality > or = 0.01% and mean survival time >10 days) from a low-virulence low-survival group containing ten other pathogens. The correlation between virulence and durability explains three to four times of magnitude of difference in mean percent mortality and mean survival time, using both across-species and phylogenetically controlled analyses. Our findings bear on several areas of active research and public health policy: (1) many pathogens used in the biological control of insects are potential sit-and-wait pathogens as they combine three attributes that are advantageous for pest control: high virulence, long durability after application, and host specificity; (2) emerging pathogens such as the 'hospital superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and potential bioweapons pathogens such as smallpox virus and anthrax that are particularly dangerous can be discerned by quantifying their durability; (3) hospital settings and the AIDS pandemic may provide footholds for emerging sit-and-wait pathogens; and (4) studies on food-borne and insect pathogens point to future research considering the potential evolutionary trade-offs and genetic linkages between virulence and durability.
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PMID:Pathogen survival in the external environment and the evolution of virulence. 1568 73

The Infectious Disease Control Act enacted in Germany in 1.1.2001 led to a duty of notification also for institutes of pathologic-anatomical diagnostics. All reports within 45 months after enacting concerning diseases and agents being subject to registration were evaluated. Among the notifiable diseases with fatal outcome ( section sign 6) belonged 3 cases of Meningococcus sepsis, 13 of tuberculosis und 5 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. During lifetime 54% of tuberculosis cases remained undetected. Notifiable agents ( section sign 7.1) concerned 92 times Mycobacterium-tuberculosis-complex, twice Influenza Virus and one case of Cryptosporidiosis and Giardia lamblia each. Six Echinococcus granulosus cysts were reported ( section sign 7.2). Notification needs exact diagnosis of infectious diseases and agents being subject of registration. By this pathologists participate in the control of infectious diseases.
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PMID:[The duty of notification for pathologists according to the infectious disease control act. Tuberculosis as dominating disease]. 1576 98


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