ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) has had a recrudescence in the last few decades in Italy as a result of many factors, among which migration from countries where TB is endemic is one of them. In Sardinia, a major island of Italy, there was no knowledge of the mechanisms of transmission of TB in the immigrant subpopulation and the impact it may have on the native subpopulation and on the community as a whole. Therefore, a molecular epidemiological study was carried out to get a clearer picture of the number and genetic features of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from immigrants and from natives in Sardinia. METHODS: Two groups of clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, one collected from immigrants and the other one from Sardinians, were analyzed in this study. The genotyping was executed through the variable number tandem repeat-mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units technique and a first-line antimycobacterial drug-susceptibility test was also carried out. RESULTS: Thirty-six clinical isolates from immigrants and 25 from Sardinians were analyzed. Variable number tandem repeat-mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units technique showed that all of them belonged to different strains and there was a quite high allelic diversity among them. Moreover, data collected allowed the finding of, with a good approximation, the phylogenetic relations among the strains isolated and the best-known phylogenetic groups. CONCLUSION: The study pointed out that since every strain is different, there was no TB transmission in any of the subpopulations and between immigrants and natives. This showed that the presence of immigrants was not a risk factor for contracting TB in the community.
Subject(s)
Disease Transmission, Infectious , Emigrants and Immigrants , Genetic Variation , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/classification , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/isolation & purification , Population Groups , Tuberculosis/epidemiology , Antitubercular Agents/pharmacology , Epidemiologic Studies , Genotype , Genotyping Techniques , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Minisatellite Repeats , Molecular Epidemiology , Molecular Typing , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/drug effects , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/genetics , Tuberculosis/transmissionABSTRACT
Infertility is a problem affecting almost 15% of couples. There are many causes for this condition, among which urogenital bacterial infections seem to play an important role. Many studies have explained the mechanisms by which bacteria cause infertility both in men and women. Therefore we undertook this study to evaluate the presence of genito-urinary infections in infertile couples who sought counselling to investigate their condition. Microbiological analysis was performed on semen and vaginal/cervical samples of both partners of each couple. The percentage of individuals affected by a urogenital bacterial infection was between 14 and 20%. More significantly, most of the species isolated both in men and women have been described in the literature as potential causes of infertility.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Infections/complications , Infertility/microbiology , Adult , Bacterial Infections/microbiology , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate inducible protein-10 (IP-10) as a biomarker besides interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) to improve the identification of active tuberculosis (TB) and latent tubercular infection (LTBI) in a country with a low incidence of TB. METHODS: Whole blood from Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected subjects was stimulated with region-of-difference-1 (RD1)-specific peptides and with heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA) to determine the release of IP-10 and IFN-γ. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was observed between positive rates of IP-10 and IFN-γ after RD1-specific peptide stimulation in the TB and LTBI groups; a different response was detected in QuantiFERON TB-gold test-negative (QFT-) subjects. A significantly different proportion of positive responses was observed between IP-10 and IFN-γ following HBHA stimulation in the TB group and in the QFT- group but not in the LTBI group. CONCLUSIONS: The IP-10 test seemed to identify false-negative QFT results in some subjects with a positive IFN-γ/IP-10/HBHA pattern.
Subject(s)
Chemokine CXCL10/blood , Latent Tuberculosis/diagnosis , Latent Tuberculosis/epidemiology , Lectins/immunology , Tuberculosis/diagnosis , Tuberculosis/epidemiology , Antigens, Bacterial , Biomarkers/blood , False Negative Reactions , Immunocompetence , Incidence , Interferon-gamma/blood , Interferon-gamma/immunology , Interferon-gamma Release Tests , Italy/epidemiology , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/pathogenicity , Reagent Kits, Diagnostic , Tuberculin TestSubject(s)
Antifungal Agents/pharmacology , Candida/drug effects , Candidiasis/microbiology , Myrtus/chemistry , Oils, Volatile/pharmacology , Plant Extracts/pharmacology , Antifungal Agents/isolation & purification , Candida/isolation & purification , Humans , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Oils, Volatile/isolation & purification , Plant Extracts/isolation & purificationSubject(s)
Chlamydia Infections/diagnosis , Chlamydia trachomatis/isolation & purification , Molecular Diagnostic Techniques/methods , Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques/methods , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Chlamydia Infections/microbiology , Chlamydia trachomatis/genetics , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Predictive Value of Tests , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial/microbiology , Young AdultABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate the Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission among high school student and teacher populations in a high school in Northern Sardinia. Tuberculin skin-test screening, chest-X-rays, QuantiFERON-TB Gold, microbiological examination, spoligotyping and variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) analysis of M. tuberculosis isolates were performed. This study indicates the effectiveness of the epidemiological investigation.
ABSTRACT
Whole blood from Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected subjects was stimulated with heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA). Tuberculosis (TB) patients showed an HBHA-specific T-cell response characterized by low-IFN-γ/high-TNF-α secretion, while asymptomatic subjects with latent infection (LTBI) and TB patients under therapy showed a pattern with high IFN-γ/low TNF-α. These results underscore the usefulness of HBHA in helping to distinguish LTBI subjects versus TB patients.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/immunology , Interferon-gamma/metabolism , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/immunology , Membrane Proteins/immunology , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/immunology , Tuberculosis/immunology , Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Cells, Cultured , Humans , Membrane Proteins/genetics , Mycobacterium smegmatis/genetics , Recombinant Proteins/genetics , Recombinant Proteins/immunologyABSTRACT
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the etiological agent of tuberculosis. The World Health Organization has estimated that 8 million of people develop active TB every year and the situation is complicated by an increase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains resistant to drugs used in antitubercular therapy: MDR and XDR-TB. Myrtle leaf extracts, used as an antiseptic in Sardinian traditional medicine, have strong antibacterial activity as several investigations showed. In this study we investigated the antimicrobial properties of the essential oil of Myrtus communis against clinical strains of M. tuberculosis and M. paratuberculosis.
ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of the QuantiFERON-TB-Gold in tube was compared with PPD to detect tuberculosis infection in the staff of cattle-farms, as a consequence of an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in livestock. The data revealed the advantage of the immunological test for the specific detection of subjects infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex.
