Risks associated with acute pancreatitis (AP) with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in COVID-19 patients: a literature review.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) has become a global pandemic, and medical experts are scrambling to understand the wide range of symptoms and consequences of the virus. Although acute pancreatitis (AP) and pancreatic damage have been associated with SARS-CoV-2, the mechanism behind this is still unclear. The current article explores whether COVID-19 is an additional cause of AP and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). The article illustrates the conditions associated with AP and DKA among COVID-19 patients and diabetes mellitus (DM). Another critical condition is acute kidney injury (AKI), often associated with DKA. Methods: A search strategy for the article was assigned and retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases from 2020 to June 2022. The articles which discussed case studies on AP, DKA, and AKI were included in the study. Results: The present review of 24 reported case studies represented conditions of AP (12), DKA (5), AP and DKA (5), AP and AKI (1), and DKA and AKI (1) among COVID-19 participants, and showed a potential relationship between the complications. Conclusion: Healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic plays a major role among AP, DKA, and AKI-associated COVID-19 patients. A compilation of case studies suggests effective management of COVID-19 infection-related complications such as AP, DKA, and AKI.

Genetic Variation of pln Loci Among Probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum Group Strains with Antioxidant and Cholesterol-Lowering Ability.

In the present study, 14 different plantaricin-encoding genes of pln loci were studied and compared to available sequences from public domain database of probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum strains. Based upon the presence and absence of selected genes, pln locus was grouped into eight clusters. Further, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis for seven genes has discriminated the complex pln locus into five types which includes WCFS1 (in Lactobacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum MCC 2976 and MCC 2974 and Lactobacillus paraplantarum MCC 2978), closely related to J51 (in Lb. paraplantarum MCC 2973 and MCC 2977), J23 (in Lb. plantarum MTCC 5422), NC8 (in Lb. paraplantarum MTCC 9483), and a new E1 type (in Lb. plantarum subsp. plantarum E1). It was observed that the plnA, EF, NC8ßα, NC81F, NC8HK, and G were expressed in E1 strain. Further, southern hybridization confirmed the chromosome-encoded plantaricin in Lb. plantarum group (LPG) strains. Several PCR assays and DNA sequence analysis of the regions amplified in pln loci of E1 isolate suggested a hybrid variant of NC8 and J51 plantaritypes. This indicates the wide distribution of plantaricin with remarkable variation, diversity, and plasticity among the LPG strains of vegetable origin. Further, the selected strains were able to reduce the growth of Kocuria rhizophila ATCC 9341 by 40-54% within 6 h of co-incubation under in vitro pathogen exclusion assay. These isolates also possessed cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant activity suggesting their application in the development of functional foods.

Diversity and evolutionary aspects of mucin binding (MucBP) domain repeats among Lactobacillus plantarum group strains through comparative genetic analysis.

Mucin binding protein (Mub) of Lactobacillus plantarum- group (LPG) is considered as a potential marker gene due to its diversity and adherence property to host intestinal layer. We recently observed strain specific diversity in mub gene of LPG strains (n=8) and grouped them into Type I, II and III based on the insertion and/or deletion of MucBP domain repeats (Devi et al., 2016). The mub gene expression pattern noted by real-time PCR revealed 67.64 increased fold change in MTCC 9483 with four MucBP repeats. Whereas, the isolates with 3 and 2 MucBP repeats showed ∼4 and 2 enhanced expression, respectively. Detection of integrase (int) and transposases (tra) in the flanking regions of mub, suggested variation in amplicon sizes and revealed strain diversity. The IS finder program identified tra nucleotide sequence similarity towards IS256 and IS5 family insertion elements that are present among other lactic acid bacteria. Phylogenetic dendrogram suggested the evolution of D7-D10 domains of L. paraplantarum MTCC 9483 from Lactobacillus namurensis, Lactobacillus hammesii and Lactobacillus spicheri. These results collectively gave information on the genetic diversity, functional MucBP domains and also facilitated in the selection of an efficient novel LPG strain with good adherence ability.

Discrimination and divergence among Lactobacillus plantarum-group (LPG) isolates with reference to their probiotic functionalities from vegetable origin.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the diversity and probiotic properties of Lactobacillus plantarum-group cultures from vegetable origin. First, genotypic diversity of L. plantarum (n=34) was achieved by PCR of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA and recA gene-specific multiplex PCR. The isolates were segregated into five groups namely, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus paraplantarum, Lactobacillus arizonensis, Lactobacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum and argentoratensis. Further discrimination was achieved by restriction fragment length polymorphism of probiotic adhesion genes viz.fbp, mub and msa gene. As determined by nucleotide sequence analysis and bioinformatics Pfam database, the putative Fbp protein had only one FBP domain, whereas Mub protein had 8-10 MUB domain repeats. However, L. pentosus (except CFR MFT9), L. plantarum subsp. argentoratensis (except CFR MFT5) and L. arizonensis (except CFR MFT2) isolates gave no amplicon for the tested marker genes. Selected cultures (n=15) showed tolerance to simulated digestive fluids (20-85%), exhibited auto-aggregation (10-77%), cellular hydrophobicity (12-78%), and broad spectrum of anti-microbial activity. Concurrently, high adherence capacity to mucin was achieved for L. plantarum subsp. plantarum (MCC 2974 and CFR MFT1) and L. paraplantarum (MTCC 9483, MCC 2977, MCC 2978), which had an additional MUB domain repeat.

Screening, Characterization and In Vitro Evaluation of Probiotic Properties Among Lactic Acid Bacteria Through Comparative Analysis.

The present work aimed to identify probiotic bacteria from healthy human infant faecal and dairy samples. Subsequently, an assay was developed to evaluate the probiotic properties using comparative genetic approach for marker genes involved in adhesion to the intestinal epithelial layer. Several in vitro properties including tolerance to biological barriers (such as acid and bile), antimicrobial spectrum, resistance to simulated digestive fluids and cellular hydrophobicity were assessed. The potential probiotic cultures were rapidly characterized by morphological, physiological and molecular-based methods [such as RFLP, ITS, RAPD and (GTG)5]. Further analysis by 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that the selected isolates belong to Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and Enterococcus species. Two cultures of non-lactic, non-pathogenic Staphylococcus spp. were also isolated. The native isolates were able to survive under acidic, bile and simulated intestinal conditions. In addition, these cultures inhibited the growth of tested bacterial pathogens. Further, no correlation was observed between hydrophobicity and adhesion ability. Sequencing of probiotic marker genes such as bile salt hydrolase (bsh), fibronectin-binding protein (fbp) and mucin-binding protein (mub) for selected isolates revealed nucleotide variation. The probiotic binding domains were detected by several bioinformatic tools. The approach used in the study enabled the identification of potential probiotic domains responsible for adhesion of bacteria to intestinal epithelial layer, which may further assist in screening of novel probiotic bacteria. The rapid detection of binding domains will help in revealing the beneficial properties of the probiotic cultures. Further, studies will be performed to develop a novel probiotic product which will contribute in food and feed industry.

In situ production of pediocin PA-1 like bacteriocin by different genera of lactic acid bacteria in soymilk fermentation and evaluation of sensory properties of the fermented soy curd.

The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are found to produce bacteriocins with enhanced nutritive properties in the fermented foods. In the present study, the ability of LAB cultures (Pediococcus acidilactici NCIM 5424, Enterococcus faecium NCIM 5423 and Lactobacillus plantarum Acr2) to produce pediocin PA-1 like bacteriocin was evaluated during soymilk fermentation. The isolates E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 were able to produce bacteriocin as well as ferment soymilk within 6 h of incubation. Upon plating the cultures E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 in soymilk were found to be viable even after 15 days of storage at 4 °C. No significant variation was observed in the viable counts of E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 (P>0.05). The effect of crude bacteriocin on Listeria cells was evidenced through scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs wherein cell membrane damage was observed. On co-cultivation of E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 individually with Listeria monocytogenes ScottA a decrease in the Listeria count was observed within 24 h of incubation. However, during co-cultivation of ScottA with P. acidilactici NCIM 5424, no significant difference was observed in the viable counts (P>0.05). The pH, titratable acidity, pediocin activity, anti-oxidant property and sensory attributes for E. faecium NCIM 5423 were studied. It was observed that E. faecium NCIM 5423 fermented soymilk had an acceptable sensory score during storage period. Hence, such culture can be an ideal starter for development of functional foods with longer shelf life.

Detection of mobile genetic elements in pediocin PA-1 like producing lactic acid bacteria.

To evaluate the presence of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in intergeneric and interspecific pediocin producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) the flanking regions of the pediocin PA-1/AcH (pediocin PA-1) operon was characterized. In Enterococcus faecium Acr4 and Lactobacillus plantarum Acr2 a variation in the amplicon size in the downstream region of the operon was identified, suggesting a deletion in this region. Beyond that, in pediocin PA-1 encoding plasmids MGEs such as ISLpl1 and mobilization regions were detected by Southern hybridization analysis. Phylogenetic analyses of the E. faecium Acr4 ISLpl1 gene sequence suggested the gene transfer from lactobacilli in the environment. The tyrosine recombinase detected in pediocin plasmids of Pediococcus acidilactici H and K7 indicate a possible transfer of the entire operon among LAB. Since these elements are known to be associated with transfer of genes linked to the bacteriocin production, antibiotic resistance, and sugar utilization, we suggest similar mechanism for natural spread of pediocin PA-1 operon among different bacterial species.

Genetic affinities within a large global collection of pathogenic Leptospira: implications for strain identification and molecular epidemiology.

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis with widespread human health implications. The non-availability of accurate identification methods for the individualization of different Leptospira for outbreak investigations poses bountiful problems in the disease control arena. We harnessed fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis (FAFLP) for Leptospira and investigated its utility in establishing genetic relationships among 271 isolates in the context of species level assignments of our global collection of isolates and strains obtained from a diverse array of hosts. In addition, this method was compared to an in-house multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method based on polymorphisms in three housekeeping genes, the rrs locus and two envelope proteins. Phylogenetic relationships were deduced based on bifurcating Neighbor-joining trees as well as median joining network analyses integrating both the FAFLP data and MLST based haplotypes. The phylogenetic relationships were also reproduced through Bayesian analysis of the multilocus sequence polymorphisms. We found FAFLP to be an important method for outbreak investigation and for clustering of isolates based on their geographical descent rather than by genome species types. The FAFLP method was, however, not able to convey much taxonomical utility sufficient to replace the highly tedious serotyping procedures in vogue. MLST, on the other hand, was found to be highly robust and efficient in identifying ancestral relationships and segregating the outbreak associated strains or otherwise according to their genome species status and, therefore, could unambiguously be applied for investigating phylogenetics of Leptospira in the context of taxonomy as well as gene flow. For instance, MLST was more efficient, as compared to FAFLP method, in clustering strains from the Andaman island of India, with their counterparts from mainland India and Sri Lanka, implying that such strains share genetic relationships and that leptospiral strains might be frequently circulating between the islands and the mainland.