ABSTRACT
Background: Diagnoses of respiratory tract infections usually happen in the late phase of the disease and usually result in reduction of the pathogen load after broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy, but not in eradication of the pathogen. The development of a non-invasive, fast, and accurate method to detect pathogens has always been of interest to researchers and clinicians alike. Previous studies have shown that bacteria produce organic gases. The current study aimed to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by three respiratory tract pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans.Methods: The VOCs produced were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), with prior collection of microbial volatile compounds using solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber. The volatile compounds were collected by obtaining bacterial headspace samples. Results: Results showed that these three organisms have various VOCs, which were analyzed under different conditions. By ignoring common VOCs, some species-specific VOCs could be detected. The most important VOC of E. coli was indole, also some important VOCs produced by S. aureus were 2,3-pentandione, cis-dihydro-α-terpinyl acetate, 1-decyne, 1,3-heptadiene, 2,5-dimethyl pyrazine, ethyl butanoate and cyclohexene,4-ethenyl. Furthermore, most of the identified compounds by C. albicans are alcohols. Conclusions: The detection of VOCs produced by infectious agents maybe the key to make a rapid and precise diagnosis of infection, but more comprehensive studies must be conducted in this regard.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Antibiotics are usually assumed as secondary metabolites produced during the idiophase of microbial growth, which can kill or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. Nowadays, indiscriminate use of antibiotics has resulted in resistant microorganisms. Therefore, screening researches on products with antimicrobial activities are necessary. OBJECTIVES: To find new antibiotics to defend against pathogenic microorganisms resistant to common antibiotics, the bacterium isolated from skin of the frog called Rana ridibunda was studied for its antimicrobial activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An antibiotic-producing bacterium was isolated from the frog skin. The bacterium was identified based on 16SrDNA sequencing and biochemical and morphological characteristics. Antimicrobial activity of the culture supernatant was examined against laboratorial standard bacteria by disc diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. To characterize the produced antimicrobial compound, the culture supernatant of the bacterium was washed by chloroform and dried at 40°C; then, the antimicrobial substance was extracted by methanol and acetone and detected by bioautography on silica gel plates. Dialysis tube was used to find the molecular weight of this substance. RESULTS: The isolated bacterium was identified as a new strain of Bacillus atrophaeus. The antimicrobial substance exhibited heat stability between 25ºC and 100ºC and was active in a broad pH range from 2.0 to 11.0. The bioautography assay showed that methanol was the optimum solvent for the extraction of antimicrobial substance. The dialysis tube indicated that the antimicrobial substance weight was less than 1 kDa and the compound did not precipitate with ammonium sulfate. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that some properties of antimicrobial substances produced by the GA strain differed from other peptide antibiotics produced by the genus Bacillus such as bacitracin, which increases the likelihood of its novelty.
ABSTRACT
Conventional bacteriology techniques were used to identify enterococci isolates cultured from patients at different hospitals in Tehran during 2000-2001. The identification was confirmed using species-specific PCR targeting the D-alanyl-D-alanine ligase gene. A total of 59 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis were identified. The rates of resistance to different antibiotics were in the following order: penicillin 84%, ciprofloxacin 42%, high-level gentamicin 30%, nitrofurantoin 14%, imipenem 4%, and chloramphenicol 2%. Resistance to ampicillin was found to be rare among the Iranian isolates of E. faecalis. Multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis was then used to analyze the strains. Forty-five electrophoretic types were obtained when 10 enzyme loci were screened. Although the collection of bacterial isolates was limited in time and location, considerable heterogeneity was found. Analysis of strains for linkage disequilibrium demonstrated that the studied population is not clonal, since the index of association was not significantly different from zero (Ia = 0.0296). Enterococcus faecalis isolates recovered from patients in Tehran were genetically diverse and seemed to possess a high potential for genetic recombinations, though none were resistant to vancomycin.
