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"nBackground: Clindamycin is a suitable antibiotic for treatment of skin and soft tissue infections. Moreover, it can suppress toxin production in many pathogenic bacteria such as S. aureus. There are two mechanisms of resistance in this antibiotic. Constitutive resistance can be detected by standard disk diffusion method but in the case of inducible resistance, D-test should be carried out. The main aim of this study is to determine prevalence of clindamycin inducible resistance among methicillin resistant and susceptible isolates of S. aureus isolated from different clinical samples. "nMethods: A total of 87 clinical isolates from clinical samples were collected. Methicillin resistance was determined using standard disk diffusion method. Subsequently, D-test was carried out according to CLSI guideline. Presence of the sea gene (enterotoxin A) was detected by PCR using specific primers. "nResults: Out of 87 isolates, 18(20.7%) were clindamycin inducible resistant while constitutive resistance was detected among 21(24.1%) isolates. The 95% Confidence intervals for the proportion of inducible clindamycin resistance among clinical isolates of S. aureus was 12.2% to 29.2%. The inducible phenotype in MRSA isolates was more common than that of MSSA isolates (33.3% vs 5.1%).Significant differences were found between prevalence of inducible clindamycin resistance and type of infection (p=0.045). Importantly, there was a significant correlation between sea gene and the constitutive/inducible resistance (p

Human Neutrophil Peptide 1 (HNP1) produced by neutrophils, is a well-known antimicrobial peptide which plays a role both in innate as well as in adaptive immunity and is under intensive investigation as a potential therapeutic agent. Previous in vitro experiments have indicated the leishmaniacidal effect of recombinant HNP1 on Leishmania major (L. major) promastigotes and amastigotes. In the current study, we further extended the idea to explore the remedial effect of HNP1 in the two modalities of peptide therapy (folded HNP1) and gene therapy in L. major infected BALB/c mice. To this end, mice in five different groups received synthetic folded HNP1 (G1), pcDNA-HNP1-EGFP (G2), pcDNA-EGFP (G3), Amphotericin B (G4) and PBS (G5), which was started three weeks after infection for three consecutive weeks. Footpad swelling was monitored weekly and a day after the therapy ended, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10, IL-6 and nitric oxide produced by splenocytes were analyzed together with the parasite load in draining lymph nodes. Arginase activity and dermal histopathological changes were also analyzed in the infected footpads. We demonstrated that both therapeutic approaches effectively induced Th1 polarization and restricted parasite burden. It can control disease progression in contrast to non-treated groups. However, pcDNA-HNP1-EGFP is more promising in respect to parasite control than folded HNP1, but less effective than AmB treatment. We concluded with the call for a future approach, that is, a DNA-based expression of HNP1 combined with AmB as it can improve the leishmaniacidal efficacy.

Aim: Several disadvantages about chemotherapy for leishmaniasis has reinforced discovery of novel therapeutic agents especially immunotherapeutics. HNP1, as a member of the mammalian antimicrobial peptides family, is an attractive molecule due to its broad functional spectrum. Here, the in vivo potency of HNP1 in transgenic Leishmania tarentolae as an immunotherapy tool against Leishmania major-infected BALB/c mice was examined., Methods & Results: 3 weeks after infection with L. major, the treatment effect of L. tarentolae-HNP1-EGFP was pursued. The results were promising in respect to parasite load control and Th1 immune response polarization compared with controls., Conclusion: Immunotherapy by live L. tarentolae secreting HNP1 can elicit cellular immune response in a susceptible mouse model in order to control L. major infection.

Proliferation of Leishmania (L.) parasites depends on polyamine availability, which can be generated by the L-arginine catabolism and the enzymatic activity of arginase (ARG) of the parasites and of the mammalian hosts. In the present study, we characterized and compared the arginase (arg) genes from pathogenic L. major and L. tropica and from non-pathogenic L. tarentolae. We quantified the level of the ARG activity in promastigotes and macrophages infected with pathogenic L. major and L. tropica and non-pathogenic L. tarentolae amastigotes. The ARG's amino acid sequences of the pathogenic and non-pathogenic Leishmania demonstrated virtually 98.6% and 88% identities with the reference L. major Friedlin ARG. Higher ARG activity was observed in all pathogenic promastigotes as compared to non-pathogenic L. tarentolae. In vitro infection of human macrophage cell line (THP1) with pathogenic and non-pathogenic Leishmania spp. resulted in increased ARG activities in the infected macrophages. The ARG activities present in vivo were assessed in susceptible BALB/c and resistant C57BL/6 mice infected with L. major, L. tropica and L. tarentolae. We demonstrated that during the development of the infection, ARG is induced in both strains of mice infected with pathogenic Leishmania. However, in L. major infected BALB/c mice, the induction of ARG and parasite load increased simultaneously according to the time course of infection, whereas in C57BL/6 mice, the enzyme is upregulated solely during the period of footpad swelling. In L. tropica infected mice, the footpads' swellings were slow to develop and demonstrated minimal cutaneous pathology and ARG activity. In contrast, ARG activity was undetectable in mice inoculated with the non-pathogenic L. tarentolae. Our data suggest that infection by Leishmania parasites can increase ARG activity of the host and provides essential polyamines for parasite salvage and its replication. Moreover, the ARG of Leishmania is vital for parasite proliferation and required for infection in mice. ARG activity can be used as one of the main marker of the disease severity.

Infection with parasites of the genus Leishmania is a health problem in many countries around the world. No effective vaccine is available against leishmaniasis, so chemotherapy is the only alternative for treatment of all forms of the disease. However, drawbacks including toxicity and severe adverse reactions restrain the use of currently available chemotherapeutics. Therefore development of new drugs and therapeutic approaches is highly demanded. Mammalian host defense peptides (mHDP) and/or mammalian antimicrobial peptides (mAMP) are among promising compounds considered effective to control the infectious diseases. These are potential multifunctional molecules that modulate the immune response besides direct killing of pathogens. Here we have reviewed the hallmark characteristics of the mHDPs in respect to the potential role they can play against leishmaniasis., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Staphylococcus epidermidis strains are frequently associated with catheter-related infection, acute bacteremia, and hospital-acquired infection. Some isolates produce an extracellular matrix called slime that may make them more resistant to antibiotics. The aim of this study was to determine antimicrobial resistance patterns, the prevalence of slime production, and the distribution of genes (mecA and aap, respectively) associated with these phenotypes in S. epidermidis nasal isolates from health-care personnel., Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 163 nasal swabs from health-care staff (one swab per subject). S. epidermidis isolates were tested for slime production on congo red agar and antibiotic resistance. PCR-based screening for mecA and aap genes was performed upon the extracted DNA of S. epidermidis isolates., Results: A total of 99 S. epidermidis strains were cultured from 58.9% of the study participants (n = 96). Of these strains, 34 (34.3%) isolates produced slime. A significant relation between slime production and resistance to penicillin 32(94%) , oxacillin 30(88%), tetracycline 20(59%), erythromycin 27(79%), and clindamycin 26(77%) was found. Respectively, 95.8% and 94.8% of all isolates were PCR-positive for mecA and aap, but only 59.8% of mecA+ strains were oxacillin-resistant and 37.3% of aap+ strains were slime producers., Conclusions: The surveillance of nasal colonization with slime-forming oxacillin-resistant S. epidermidis in health-care workers might be helpful in breaking the epidemiological chain of hospital-acquired infections.

Objectives: We sought to compare the antigenemia assay and in-house semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction to monitor human cytomegalovirus infection after transplant in hematopoietic cell transplant recipients., Materials and Methods: A pp65 antigen test for polymorphonuclear leukocytes and a semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction for whole blood were performed for 201 samples obtained from 26 hematopoietic cell transplant recipients over a 3-month surveillance period., Results: Fourteen episodes of antigenemia positivity were detected in 7 patients in whom human cytomegalovirus DNA loads and pp65-positive cells ranged between < 102 to 2.96 x 104 copies/mL and 0-35/ 5 x 104 polymorphonuclear leukocytes, respectively. A significant correlation was detected between human cytomegalovirus DNA load and the antigenemia test. A receiver operating characteristic analysis determined 5000 copies/mL of human cytomegalovirus as the threshold value for initiation of ganciclovir therapy., Conclusions: Based on a comparison of the pp65 antigenemia assay, quantification of human cytomegalovirus DNA in whole blood can be used to guide clinical management of hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. This approach may have important advantages including superior sensitivity and efficient monitoring of preemptive therapy, allowing inclusion of kinetic criteria in clinical guidelines. Furthermore, a high human cytomegalovirus load among patients with grade II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease may indicate a high risk of human cytomegalovirus disease among hematopoietic cell transplant patients. Human cytomegalovirus reactivation must be monitored using more-sensitive assays such as real-time polymerase chain reaction.