First detection in Europe of the metallo-ß-lactamase IMP-15 in clinical strains of Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

In a prospective study (2009-2011) in healthcare institutions from the Canary Islands (Spain), 6 out of 298 carbapenem non-susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates produced a metallo-ß-lactamase: four IMP-15, two VIM-2 (including one IMP-15-positive isolate) and one VIM-1. Multilocus sequence typing identified the single VIM-1-producing isolate as clone ST111 and two IMP-15-producing isolates as ST606, but, strikingly, bacterial re-identification revealed that the other three isolates (producing IMP-15 and/or VIM-2) were actually Pseudomonas putida. Further retrospective analysis revealed a very high prevalence (close to 50%) of carbapenem resistance in this environmental species. Hence, we report the simultaneous emergence in hospitals on the Canary Islands of P. putida and P. aeruginosa strains producing IMP-15, a metallo-ß-lactamase not previously detected in Europe, and suggest an underestimated role of P. putida as a nosocomial reservoir of worrying transferable resistance determinants.

Isolation of Cryptococcus species including C. neoformans from cloaca of pigeons.

Upper digestive tract of the pigeon (Columba livia) is well known as a reservoir for different species of Cryptococcus, but lower portions are not so frequently studied. In the present study, we tested on selective media a total of 331 pigeon cloacal swabs; Cryptococcus spp. were recovered from 26 (7.85%). Cryptococcus uniguttulatus was isolated from 11 samples (3.32%), C. laurentii from six (1.81%), C. neoformans var. neoformans from six (1.81%) and C. albidus from three of them (0.91%). The results show the importance of pigeon in the cryptococcosis epidemiology as reservoir and carrier for C. neoformans var. neoformans, but also for other Cryptococcus species of increasing clinical interest.

Spread of amikacin resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii strains isolated in Spain due to an epidemic strain.

Sixteen amikacin-resistant clinical Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from nine different hospitals in Spain were investigated to determine whether the high incidence of amikacin-resistant A. baumannii was due to the dissemination of an amikacin-resistant strain or to the spread of an amikacin resistance gene. The epidemiological relationship studied by repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR and low-frequency restriction analysis of chromosomal DNA showed that the same clone was isolated in eight of nine hospitals, although other clones were also found. The strains were studied for the presence of the aph(3')-VIa and aac(6')-I genes, which encode enzymes which inactivate amikacin, by PCR. All 16 clinical isolates had positive PCRs with primers specific for the amplification of the aph(3')-VIa gene, whereas none had a positive reaction for the amplification of the aac(6')-I gene. Therefore, the high incidence of amikacin resistance among clinical A. baumannii isolates in Spain was mainly due to an epidemic strain, although the spread of the aph(3')-VI gene cannot be ruled out.

Inhibitory effect of Bcl-2 on p53-mediated transactivation following genotoxic stress.

In the cellular response to genotoxic stress, cell cycle checkpoint and apoptosis are considered to be two of the major biological events in maintaining genomic stability. The tumor suppressor p53 has been shown to play critical roles in these stress-induced cellular responses at least in part through the activation of its down-stream genes, such as p21CIP1/WAF1, GADD45 and BAX. In addition, p53 has been found to down-regulate the expression of BCL-2, which is able to block apoptosis induced by both p53-dependent and independent signaling events. In this report, we have found that increased expression of Bcl-2 protein in the human Burkitt's lymphoma WMN cell line suppressed apoptosis induced by different DNA-damaging agents. The induction of p53-regulated genes including GADD45, p21CIP1/WAF1 and BAX by genotoxic stress was substantially reduced in cells expressing high levels of Bcl-2 protein. Furthermore, Bcl-2 protein was shown to specifically suppress the p53-mediated transactivation of p21CIP1/WAF1 and PG13-CAT, which is a typical p53-binding-site reporter construct. Similarly, the inhibitory effect of Bcl-2 protein was seen in a GADD45 promoter reporter construct after treatment with methylmethane sulfonate or UV-radiation. These results indicate that in addition to its apoptosis-suppressing activity, Bcl-2 protein is able to inhibit transactivation of p53-regulated genes, which function in multiple important cellular responses to genotoxic stress, including the control of cell cycle checkpoints, cell growth suppression and DNA repair.

Evidence for distinct kinase-mediated pathways in gadd gene responses.

We have evaluated the role of various protein kinases on the induction of the gadd (growth arrest and DNA damage inducible) genes, using a panel of protein kinase inhibitors. Our data indicate that three different stress response pathways mediating gadd gene induction are most likely regulated by different protein kinases or combinations of protein kinases. The protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine and the temperature sensitive (ts) p34cdc2 mutant reduced induction by the alkylating agent methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) of the rodent gadd45 and gadd153 genes. However, staurosporine had no effect of the ionizing radiation (IR) induction of the human GADD45. Caffeine and 2-aminopurine, on the other hand, completely blocked this IR induction. Suramin, an antitumor drug that interferes with the interaction of growth factors with their receptors, inhibited the UV radiation induction of GADD45 and GADD153 but had no effect on the MMS and IR pathways. Elevated expression of gadd45 by medium depletion (starvation) was partially reduced by the addition of either genistein or tyrphostin, two protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors, while gadd153 was affected by tyrphostin only. Two inhibitors acting preferentially on cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), N-[2-(methylamino)ethyl]-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide, HCl (H8) and protein kinase inhibitor (PKI), also had a moderate effect on the medium depletion-induced levels of both gadd genes. Thus, these varied effects of inhibitors on gadd gene responses point to important differences in the pathways controlling these responses.

The apoptosis-associated gamma-ray response of BCL-X(L) depends on normal p53 function.

We have investigated the effect of DNA damage on the expression of BCL-X, a member of the BCL-2 family. BCL-X mRNA levels were found to increase upon exposure human cells to ionizing radiation (IR). The Bcl-X(L) protein, but not Bcl-X(S), was identified to be induced by IR. Like BAX, another member of the BCL-2 family and a p53-regulated gene, the induction of BCL-X(L) was dependent on normal p53 function and required that cells have an apoptosis-susceptible phenotype. The induction of BCL-X(L) was rapid, transient and dose-dependent. The mRNA level peaked at 4 h and returned to baseline by 24 h post-irradiation. In agreement with the increased transcript level, Bcl-X(L) protein level was also observed to increase in cells with wild-type p53 where IR triggered apoptosis. In addition, a survey of the BCL-X(L) mRNA basal levels in human cells with known apoptotic responses showed that low basal levels of BCL-X(L) mRNA in cells were highly correlated with a strong ability of cells to undergo IR-induced apoptosis. On the other hand, high levels of basal BCL-X(L) were correlated with the resistance of cells to IR-induced apoptosis regardless of p53 status. These results indicate that BCL-2 and BCL-X(L) behave differently in response to DNA damage treatment even though they both are able to protect cells from p53-mediated apoptosis; along with down-regulation of BCL-2, BCL-X(L) was up-regulated by IR in human cells with wild-type p53 and susceptibility to IR-induced apoptosis. We speculate that the physiological function of increased BCL-X(L) protein would be expected to probably limit the severity and length of BAX effect in order to maintain a proper threshold for apoptosis and to complete cell cycle arrest activated by p53.

Abrogation of p53 function affects gadd gene responses to DNA base-damaging agents and starvation.

The tumor suppressor p53 is required for induction of its downstream effector genes such as GADD45 and CIP1/WAF1 by ionizing radiation (IR). This response is probably mediated through defined p53 binding sites located in the promoter of CIP1/WAF1 and in the third intron of GADD45. In contrast, the gadd gene stress response to base-damaging agents, such as methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) or UV radiation, or medium depletion (starvation) occurs in all mammalian cells examined to date regardless of p53 status for both GADD45 and also GADD153, which is not IR-responsive in many lines with functional p53. These agents strongly induce the p53 protein and raise the possibility that, although p53 is not required for the typical "gadd" response to these agents, p53 may contribute to these non-IR stress responses. This possibility was confirmed by the finding that disruption of p53 function by transfection with dominant-negative vectors expressing HPV E6, mutant p53, or SV40 T Ag reduced the induction of GADD45 and GADD153 as measured by increases in mRNA and protein levels in human lines with wild-type p53. Similarly, induction of these genes by MMS or UV radiation was consistently stronger in the parental mouse embryo fibroblasts compared to cells derived from mice where both p53 alleles had been deleted. Similar qualitative responses were also seen for CIP1/WAF1. In agreement with reduced induction of p53-regulated genes, the G1 checkpoint activated by MMS or UV radiation was markedly abrogated in p53-wt human MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells by E6 expression. Interestingly, induction of reporter constructs driven by the GADD45 or GADD153 promoters was substantially reduced in human cells transfected with mutant p53 or E6 expression vectors or in cells lacking p53 following treatment with MMS, UV radiation, or starvation. Because neither promoter is inducible by IR, and neither contains a strong p53 binding site, these results indicate that p53 has a synergistic or cooperative role in these non-IR stress responses for both GADD45 and GADD153, and that this role is not mediated through identifiable p53-binding sites.

A novel DNA damage-inducible transcript, gadd7, inhibits cell growth, but lacks a protein product.

gadd7 cDNA was isolated from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells on the basis of increased levels of RNA following treatment with UV radiation. The transcript for gadd7, as well as for four other gadd genes, was found to increase rapidly and coordinately following several different types of DNA damage and more slowly following other stresses that elicit growth arrest. Agents that induce gadd7 RNA include alkylating agents, such as methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) and mechlorethamine HCl (HN2), oxidizing agents, such as hydrogen peroxide, and growth arrest signals, such as medium depletion (starvation). Since growth arrest is a cellular consequence of many types of DNA damage in normal cells, it was thought that gadd7 may play a role in the cellular response to DNA damage. Indeed, overexpression of gadd7 led to a decrease in cell growth. Interestingly, gadd7 cDNA does not contain an appreciable open reading frame and does not appear to encode a protein product, but instead may function at the RNA level.

[Detection of antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus sp. Comparison of GPS-TA (BioMérieux-Vitek), Uniscept MIC-3 (bioMérieux-Vitek) and conventional methods]. / Detección de resistencia antibiótica en Enterococcus sp. Comparación entre GPS-TA (BioMérieux-Vitek), Uniscept MIC-3 (BioMérieux-Vitek) y métodos convencionales.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of severe enterococcus infections requires synergism of a beta-lactamic or glycopeptide and a aminoglycoside, but when resistance to first one or high-level resistance to aminoglycosides are present, synergism would be lost. We compared the adequacy of two commercially available systems to detect antibiotic resistance. METHODS: We studied 158 isolates of Enterococcus sp., with high-level resistance to gentamicin (40 isolates) and streptomycin (89 isolates), resistance to ciprofloxacin (34 isolates), resistance to ampicillin (7 isolates) and with intermediate susceptibility to vancomycin (3 isolates). No one was beta-lactamase producer by Cefinase disk method. We use disk diffusion as reference technique to detect high-level streptomycin resistance. The susceptibility to the remainder antibiotics was studied by agar dilution method, according to NCCLS. We studied the accuracy of GPS-TA cards and Uniscept MIC-3 in relation to the degree of agreement with conventional means, following FDA criteria. RESULTS: Essential agreement for MIC was less than 90 with MIC-3 for ampicillin (81.5%) and ciprofloxacin (71.3%). Categorical agreement rate was less than 90% (76.4%) and major error rate was higher than 3% (10.9%) with the use of MIC-3 for ciprofloxacin. Very major errors for ampicillin, vancomycin and ciprofloxacin were not produced by any system. The very major error rates for high level resistance to gentamicin and streptomycin with GPS-TA card were 5 and 15.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We do not recommend the use of the Uniscept MIC-3 panel with visual reading to detect susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. Detection of high levels of aminoglucoside resistance by GPS-TA card should be supplemented with conventional techniques because of the high rate of major error. Due to the low number of strains that have been studied, we can not assure the suitability of these systems to detect ampicillin or vancomycin resistance.

Similarity of the DNA-damage responsiveness and growth-suppressive properties of waf1/cip1 and gadd45.

The cellular responses to genotoxic stress are complex involving both p53-dependent and independent mechanisms. In the case of the GADD genes, many stresses eliciting growth arrest have been shown to induce these genes in a coordinate fashion regardless of p53 status, while the ionizing radiation response (IR) of GADD45 has been found to be strictly p53-dependent. In the current study, the response of GADD45 was compared to the p53-regulated genes WAF1/CIP1 and MDM2 in a panel of human lines with known p53 status and also in mouse embryo fibroblasts where one or both alleles of p53 had been deleted. After IR, all 3 genes showed very similar transcriptional responses as measured by rapid increases in mRNA. in a p53-dependent manner. Like GADD45, the WAF1/CIP1 induction by IR can be enhanced by the radiosensitizer iododeoxyuridine, and provides further evidence that DNA strand breaks can act as a signal for activation of the p53 pathway. In addition, caffeine, which blocks IR cell-cycle checkpoint activation, reduced IR induction for both genes. Unlike the case for IR, only WAF1/CIP1 showed a consistent similarity to GADD45 to DNA base-damaging agents, where appreciable induction occurred in cells regardless of p53 status. The similarity between WAF1/CIP1 and GADD45 also extended to their growth suppressive properties, and a combination of expression vectors for these genes suppressed growth appreciably more than either alone. A reasonable interpretation of these results is that growth suppression after DNA damage by either p53-dependent or independent pathways is mediated by the combined action of multiple downstream effecters including WAF1/CIP1 and GADD45.

Genotoxic stress confers preferential and coordinate messenger RNA stability on the five gadd genes.

The growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible (gadd) genes represent a group of five stress-inducible genes that are coordinately regulated at the transcriptional level. Posttranscriptional regulation of gadd153, gadd45, gadd34, gadd33, and gadd7 was studied after exposure to DNA-damaging agents or other growth arrest treatments in hamster cells. Relative transcript levels were measured following treatment with the transcriptional inhibitor actinomycin D. After exposure to methylmethane sulfonate or UV radiation, all five gadd messages demonstrated a coordinate increase in mRNA stability compared to untreated exponentially growing cells. This enhanced stability was not an universal response to genotoxic stress since other DNA damage-inducible genes, such as c-jun and c-fos, did not show an appreciable increase in mRNA half-life. In contrast, induction of growth arrest by media depletion (starvation) or by treatment with the growth inhibitor prostaglandin A2 did not induce such an increase in mRNA stability in all gadd genes. Comparison of overall RNA turnover by 3H labeling of total cellular RNA also indicated that the preferential stabilization of the gadd transcripts by DNA-damaging agents was not an artifactual response due to variations in overall RNA metabolism within each treatment group. However, DNA-damaging agents were ineffective in inducing stabilization of gadd153 mRNA in growth-arrested cells. This suggest that the signal(s) that give rise to gadd mRNA stability may also be affected by the state of cellular proliferation. Together, these results suggest that the global posttranscriptional response of the gadd genes to DNA-damaging agents is specific and unique to actively growing cells, and further implicates the role of the gadd genes in the DNA damage response of cycling cells.

The gadd and MyD genes define a novel set of mammalian genes encoding acidic proteins that synergistically suppress cell growth.

A remarkable overlap was observed between the gadd genes, a group of often coordinately expressed genes that are induced by genotoxic stress and certain other growth arrest signals, and the MyD genes, a set of myeloid differentiation primary response genes. The MyD116 gene was found to be the murine homolog of the hamster gadd34 gene, whereas MyD118 and gadd45 were found to represent two separate but closely related genes. Furthermore, gadd34/MyD116, gadd45, MyD118, and gadd153 encode acidic proteins with very similar and unusual charge characteristics; both this property and a similar pattern of induction are shared with mdm2, whic, like gadd45, has been shown previously to be regulated by the tumor suppressor p53. Expression analysis revealed that they are distinguished from other growth arrest genes in that they are DNA damage inducible and suggest a role for these genes in growth arrest and apoptosis either coupled with or uncoupled from terminal differentiation. Evidence is also presented for coordinate induction in vivo by stress. The use of a short-term transfection assay, in which expression vectors for one or a combination of these gadd/MyD genes were transfected with a selectable marker into several different human tumor cell lines, provided direct evidence for the growth-inhibitory functions of the products of these genes and their ability to synergistically suppress growth. Taken together, these observations indicate that these genes define a novel class of mammalian genes encoding acidic proteins involved in the control of cellular growth.

Analysis of the mammalian gadd45 gene and its response to DNA damage.

The gadd45 gene is transcriptionally activated through at least two different mechanisms; one following treatment with base-damaging agents such as methylmethane sulfonate and UV radiation and the other following ionizing radiation. To investigate the sequences involved in induction of gadd45 by agents producing high levels of base damage, the hamster, human, and mouse genes were sequenced. Comparison of these sequences revealed a high level of conservation between species of 1500 base pairs of the proximal promoter and 700 base pairs within the third intron. However, in the promoter regions, there was no conservation between species of any transcription factor binding sites known to confer DNA damage responsiveness. The promoter of the hamster gene was inducible by base-damaging agents in both rodent and human cell lines and the human gene was inducible in a rodent cell line. This indicates that both sequence elements in the gadd45 promoter and factors binding to these sites are conserved in mammalian cells. Deletion analysis of the hamster promoter did not reveal any specific sequence which conferred damage inducibility and the maximal response required a large portion of the promoter. The hamster promoter was not inducible by ionizing radiation, suggesting that sequences outside the promoter region used, such as a p53 binding site in the third intron, are necessary. The human GADD45 gene was mapped to chromosome 1p31.1-31.2.

Induction by ionizing radiation of the gadd45 gene in cultured human cells: lack of mediation by protein kinase C.

The effect of ionizing radiation on the expression of two DNA-damage-inducible genes, designated gadd45 and gadd153, was examined in cultured human cells. These genes have previously been shown to be strongly and coordinately induced by UV radiation and alkylating agents in human and hamster cells. We found that the gadd45 but not the gadd153 gene is strongly induced by X rays in human cells. The level of gadd45 mRNA increased rapidly after X rays at doses as low as 2 Gy. After 20 Gy of X rays, gadd45 induction, as measured by increased amounts of mRNA, was similar to that produced by the most effective dose of the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate. No induction was seen after treatment of either human or hamster cells with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate, a known activator of protein kinase C (PKC). Therefore, gadd45 represents the only known mammalian X-ray-responsive gene whose induction is not mediated by PKC. However, induction was blocked by the protein kinase inhibitor H7, indicating that induction is mediated by some other kinase(s). Sequence analysis of human and hamster cDNA clones demonstrated that this gene has been highly conserved and encodes a novel 165-amino-acid polypeptide which is 96% identical in the two species. This gene was localized to the short arm of human chromosome 1 between p12 and p34. When induction in lymphoblast lines from four normal individuals was compared with that in lines from four patients with ataxia telangiectasia, induction by X rays of gadd45 mRNA was less in the cell lines from this cancer-prone radiosensitive disorder. Our results provide evidence for the existence of an X-ray stress response in human cells which is independent of PKC and which is abnormal in taxia telangiectasia.

Induction of heat shock protein transcripts and B2 transcripts by various stresses in Chinese hamster cells.

We have investigated the induction of known hsp (heat shock protein) RNA and other heat shock (HS) inducible transcripts in Chinese hamster cells by various stresses including DNA damaging agents. cDNA clones coding for at least 14 different HS-inducible transcripts were isolated. By DNA sequence analysis and homology with cDNA clones of other species, some of these cDNA clones were identified as coding for hsp27, hsp89 alpha, hsp89 beta, two different hsp70s, ubiquitin, and the HS-inducible RNA polymerase III transcript B2. In addition, hsp-related cDNA clones, hsp60 and four with hsp70 homology, were isolated which coded for transcripts which were not induced by HS or other stresses in two different Chinese hamster cell lines. After HS or treatment with the HS-mimetic agent ethanol, there was coordinate induction of all 14 transcripts. With severe HS treatments which produced substantial cytotoxicity, the increase in all transcripts except B2 RNA was delayed and, in some cases, suppressed. The only DNA damaging agent, which induced many HS-inducible transcripts, was high-dose methylmethane sulfonate (MMS). However, induction by MMS was not coordinate for all transcripts as it was for HS, and B2 RNA was not induced. hsp27 RNA induction differed from the others in several respects including induction by irradiation and other agents which produce high levels of DNA damage repaired by nucleotide excision repair. The implications of these findings in cellular events such as cytotoxicity, thermotolerance, and regulation of stress responses will be discussed.

Ubiquitin mRNA is a major stress-induced transcript in mammalian cells.

Ubiquitin mRNA was found to be an abundant transcript which was induced by heat shock (HS), and certain other stresses in mammalian cells. In Chinese hamster cells, the 2 major ubiquitin transcripts of 2.6 kb and 1.7 kb were induced coordinately, while a minor ubiquitin transcript of 0.8 kb was not induced; the response was similar in human cells with induction of the 2.5 kb Ub C and 1.0 kb Ub B transcripts. A representative ubiquitin cDNA clone, isolated from a cDNA library derived from HS-treated Chinese hamster cells, coded for a typical tandem repeat polyubiquitin transcript. Only a portion of the 5' nontranslated sequence of this clone had homology with the previously published corresponding region in human Ub B mRNA. Oligonucleotide probes complementary to the portion of the 5' nontranslated sequence with homology to the human sequence and also portions with no homology hybridized only to the 1.7 kb transcript. There was coordinate induction of ubiquitin, HSP27, and HSP70 mRNA by HS as determined by both increased RNA and increased transcription. Ubiquitin mRNA was induced by certain DNA damaging agents, in particular the alkylating agent methylmethane sulfonate, or incubation in isoleucine-deficient medium under conditions where the other HSP mRNA were not.

DNA damage-inducible transcripts in mammalian cells.

Hybridization subtraction at low ratios of RNA to cDNA was used to enrich for the cDNA of transcripts increased in Chinese hamster cells after UV irradiation. Forty-nine different cDNA clones were isolated. Most coded for nonabundant transcripts rapidly induced 2- to 10-fold after UV irradiation. Only 2 of the 20 cDNA clones sequenced matched known sequences (metallothionein I and II). The predicted amino acid sequence of one cDNA had two localized areas of homology with the rat helix-destabilizing protein. These areas of homology were at the two DNA-binding sites of this nucleic acid single-strand-binding protein. The induced transcripts were separated into two general classes. Class I transcripts were induced by UV radiation and not by the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate. Class II transcripts were induced by UV radiation and by methyl methanesulfonate. Many class II transcripts were induced also by H2O2 and various alkylating agents but not by heat shock, phorbol 12-tetradecanoate 13-acetate, or DNA-damaging agents which do not produce high levels of base damage. Since many of the cDNA clones coded for transcripts which were induced rapidly and only by certain types of DNA-damaging agents, their induction is likely a specific response to such damage rather than a general response to cell injury.

Coordinate induction of metallothioneins I and II in rodent cells by UV irradiation.

Sequence analysis of Chinese hamster V79 lung fibroblast cDNA clones, which code for UV radiation-inducible transcripts, revealed that many of the clones corresponded to metallothioneins (MTs) I and II. A third cDNA clone, DDIU4, was found also to code for a similar-size UV-inducible transcript which was unrelated to MT by both sequence analysis and kinetics of induction. MTI and MTII RNAs rapidly increased in V79 cells within 1 h after UV irradiation, and maximum induction was seen by 4 h. This rapid induction of MT RNA by UV irradiation was not observed in human fibroblasts. MTI and MTII were coordinately induced in both time course and dose-response experiments, although the induction of MTII, up to 30-fold, was three to four times greater than that of MTI. The induction of MT did not appear to be a general stress response, since no increase occurred after exposure to X rays or H2O2.