Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0740441 (acute diarrhea)
 2,275 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) has been implicated in sporadic diarrhea in children and adults and has been identified as the cause of several outbreaks worldwide. The HEp-2 test remains the gold standard for identification of this pathotype. A 60-65 MDa plasmid encodes the aggregative adherence fimbriae (AAF/I and AAF/II), a transcriptional activator (aggR gene), the enteroaggregative heat-stable enterotoxin EAST1 (astA gene) and a cytotoxin (Pet). The standard assay for EAEC is performed only in research laboratories, because it is expensive, labor intensive and time-consuming. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) offers the possibility of rapid diagnosis. In the current study, a multiplex PCR assay which checks aggR and astA genes was designed. Eigthy-eight E. coli strains, isolated from children with acute diarrhea in Mendoza, Argentina, were characterized by the reference method (HEp-2 assay), and by aggR-astA PCR. A strong correlation between the presence of the specific marker aggR and the reference test was found. The astA gene had a similar distribution between aggregative and localized strains, indicating that this gene could not be considered as a marker of EAEC. We conclude that aggR may be used to identify EAEC, using the PCR method as a screening test.
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PMID:Evaluation of a multiplex PCR method to detect enteroaggregative Escherichia coli. 1697 55

This study investigated the genetic diversity of noroviruses identified from a previous surveillance study conducted at the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 2004 to 2006. In the previous study, 926 stool samples were collected from children aged 3-60 months with acute diarrhea (cases) and without diarrhea (controls) with reported 6.7% of cases and 3.2% of controls being positive for norovirus. The initial norovirus diagnostic assay was performed with real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT PCR) which also distinguished between genogroups I and II (GI and GII). Norovirus infection was most commonly detected in children aged 12-23 months in both cases and controls. Norovirus Genotyping Tool and phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences of the 3' end of the RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase (RdRp) and the capsid domain region were employed to assign genotypes of the norovirus strains. GII.4 was the most predominant capsid genotype detected at 39.5% followed by GII.6 at 14.9%. The GII.4 Hunter 2004 variant was the predominant strain detected. Six RdRP/capsid recombinants including GII.P7/GII.6, GII.P7/GII.14, GII.P7/GII.20, GII.P12/GII.13, GII.P17/GII.16, and GII.P21/GII.3 were also identified. This study of norovirus infection in young children in Cambodia suggests genetic diversity of norovirus as reported worldwide.
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PMID:Molecular Epidemiology and Genetic Diversity of Norovirus in Young Children in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 2811 47