Giornale di batteriologia, virologia ed immunologia最新文献

The authors considered the epidemiological and microbiological aspects of the infectious diarrhea caused by bacteria, protozoan and viruses observed at the Infantile Hospital, Alessandria, and at the Malpighi Diagnostic Center, Chivasso, Turin, over a period of 14 months. Furthermore, a greater interest has been given to the role of Clostridium difficile diarrhea, since hospitalized patients are often predisposed to the development of this disease due to the antimicrobial prophylaxis or therapy.

The protein encoded by the tumor suppressor gene p53 can complex and functionally interact with cytomegalovirus proteins produced during the immediate-early phase of infection. The functions of these complex are unclear but there is some evidence to suggest that binding of p53 to these viral proteins may inactivate p53 functions. Recent reports have shown that p53 is involved in regulation of transcription. In this study we have considered the possibility that p53 may regulate transcription of cytomegalovirus immediate early genes which play a crucial role for virus replication. Here we report that experiments in which NIH 3T3 cells were cotransfected with a p53 expression plasmid together with a reporter gene linked to the mouse cytomegalovirus immediate-early enhancer/promoter revealed that wild type p53 could efficiently reduce the transcriptional activity of this viral regulatory sequence. By contrast expression of a mutated p53 correlated with a much smaller reduction of transcription. Deletion mutants analysis of the enhancer revealed that repression of transcription by p53 requires a minimal promoter containing an SP1 consensus sequence and a TATA box.

On a randomized sample of 305 diabetic patients and of 479 controls was studied for an epidemiological research about the colonization of urinary tract by Group B-Streptococci (GBS). The detection rate was 16.44% in the diabetics, and 8.77% in the controls. and it was higher in diabetic women than diabetic men (R.P. 1.96, p < 0.05). The age, the model of diabetes treatment, and the metabolic control of diabetic people didn't be significatively correlated with GBS presence. Most of GBS that have been identified in diabetic patients were belonged to the sierotype I, whereas in the controls were belonged to the sierotype III.

The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen in patients visiting the University Hospital of Ioannina, North-western Greece during 1991-1993 is surveyed. Six hundred and twenty two (622) samples (scrapings from the cervix, uretra and conjunctiva) were examined for the detenction of C. trachomatis antigen using the direct immunofluorescence technique (DIF). From the 662 samples examined by DIF, 579 were found negative (93%) and 43 positive (7%).

Lower respiratory tract infections are clinically important, because of their high incidence, as well as the significant morbidity they cause. Hence the great importance to diagnose the etiology of these infections and treat the patient with selective therapy. In this study 367 bacteria isolated from lower respiratory tract were identified (253 Gram negative and 114 Gram positive) and tested towards augmentin, ceftriaxone, lomefloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and erythromycin. The in vitro activity of such antibiotics against the clinical isolates was compared.

The immune response to viral infections is a combination of many events: viral antigen presentation to the immune system, proliferation of specific lymphocytes, cytokine intervention. This review describes the virus-cell relationship contributing to the latency state in viral infections (especially in AIDS) and cytokine network, its importance in the pathogenesis of viral diseases and its therapeutic potential.

The analysis of the MCMV IE enhancer revealed the presence of many putative binding sites for the transcription factors AP-1 and NFkB. Previous studies suggested that such factors represent a final target for the metabolic cascade triggered by serum and growth factors. On these basis we wanted to verify if serum stimulates the transcriptional activity of the MCMV IE enhancer through p21ras and AP-1 and NFkB according to the actual model of transduction of the mitogenic signal. Our data demonstrate that serum stimulates the MCMV IE enhancer through a pathway in which the p21ras is involded, as demonstrated by using the dominant inhibitory mutant ras(Asn 17). Moreover deletion mutant analysis of the enhancer showed that the serum responsive region lies between nucleotides -1280 and -285 and contains a high concentration of putative AP-1 and NFkB binding sites.

The A reports the characteristics of a new serovar of Salmonella: S.V 13, 22:r:-, isolated from a cockroach Periplaneta americana, all set against the background of ample technic notes.

Acute otitis media (AOM) is an infection frequently found in children, but tends to be less frequent with age and its frequency in adults is only about 1%. The etiology of AOM in children is prevalently bacterial; numerous studies have shown the most common etiological agents. But the etiology in adults has not been well studied. The authors examined 40 cases of AOM in adults, the pathologic material was obtained by needle aspiration; in 32 samples there was bacterial growth. In the majority of the cases (94%) the bacteria isolated were the same as those found in children: S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and B. catarrhalis; much rarer were S. pyogenes and S. aureus. On the potential beta-lactamase producing strains, this activity was measured. From our findings we believe that there is the necessity to have a rational antibiotic therapy (due to the difficulty in obtaining pathologic material) with active drugs for the probable etiological agents of AOM.