First case report of isolation of Micrococcus lylae from urinary catheter of a 50-year-old woman suffering from malignancy.

INTRODUCTION: Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is the most common healthcare-associated infection which tends to cause increased length of morbidity, and mortality of patients, in addition to increased bacterial resistance to antibiotics. METHODOLOGY: In the present study, urinary catheters were collected from a 50-year-old woman suffering from malignancy, bedridden, and having urinary incontinence. These catheters were processed in laboratory for isolation of bacteria using standard procedures. RESULTS: Microbiological examination of the urinary catheters by biochemical, physiological, and VITEK 2 compact system revealed bacterial infection caused by Micrococcus lylae, a Gram-positive microorganism belonging to the family Micrococcacea. These Gram-positive bacteria were found to be susceptible to streptomycin, erythromycin, cefotaxime, neomycin, kanamycin, vancomycin, azithromycin, chloramphenicol, and tetracycline. Bacterial species were confirmed using 16s rRNA sequencing. CONCLUSIONS: The sequences were found to have 99% similarity with Micrococcus lylae. This is the first report of isolation of Micrococcus lylae from the urinary catheter.

Synthesis of 2-(6-substituted quinolin-4-yl)-1-alkoxypropan-2-ol as potential antimycobacterial agents.

Resistance to antibiotic drugs has directed global health security to a life-threatening situation due to mycobacterial infections. In search of a new potent antimycobacterial, a series of (±) 2-(6-substituted quinolin-4-yl)-1-alkoxypropan-2-ol (8a-p) have been synthesized. The structures of the newly synthesized derivatives were characterized by spectrometric analysis. Derivatives 8a-p were evaluated for antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv (ATCC 25177), antibacterial activity against Proteus mirabilis (NCIM2388), Escherichia coli (NCIM 2065), Bacillus subtilis (NCIM2063) Staphylococcus albus (NCIM 2178) and antifungal activity against Candida albicans (NCIM 3100), Aspergillus niger (ATCC 504). Thirteen 2-(6-substituted quinolin-4-yl)-1-alkoxypropan-2-ol (8a-m) derivatives reported moderate to good antitubercular activity against M. tuberculosis H37Rv with MIC 9.2-106.4 µM. Compounds 8a and 8h showed comparable activity with respect to the standard drug pyrazinamide. The active compounds screened for cytotoxicity activity against L929 mouse fibroblast cells showed no significant cytotoxic activity. Compounds 8c, 8d, 8e, 8g, 8k, and 8o displayed good activity against S. albus. Compounds 8c and 8n showed good activity against P. mirabilis and E. coli, respectively. The potential antimycobacterial activities imposed that the 2-(6-substituted quinolin-4-yl)-1-alkoxypropan-2-ol derivatives could lead to compounds that could treat tuberculosis. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11696-023-02741-3.

Colorimetric method for rapid detection of Oxacillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and its comparison with PCR for mec A gene.

Rapid and accurate detection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important role of clinical microbiology laboratories to avoid treatment failure. The detection of MRSA is based on phenotypic assays which require at least 24 h to perform. Detection of the mecA gene or of PBP 2a is the "gold standard", but not always available. The aim of this study was to evaluate a rapid method for detection of MRSA by using 3 (4, 5 dimethyl thiazole -2-yl) -2, 5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT). Total 126 isolates of MRSA were collected from tertiary healthcare center and were confirmed by oxacillin screening agar test as per CLSI guidelines. Amplification of mecA gene was performed by using PCR. MTT assay was carried out for all the isolates in 96 well Microtitre plate and compared with standard methods of CLSI. Out of 126 isolates, 98 were found to be mecA positive. MTT method was found to be 98.98% sensitive and 96.43% specific. The MTT based colorimetric method is rapid and simple test for screening of oxacillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. It significantly shortens the time to just 7 h required to obtained a drug susceptibility test and could be useful to screen MRSA.

Comparison of simple sequence repeats in Staphylococcus strains using in-silico approach.

Staphylococci are Gram-positive bacteria which play an important role in infectious disease and are major causes of communityacquired and hospital-acquired infections. Strains of Staphylococcus aureus are reported as genomically and phenotypically highly heterogeneous; hence in-silico based comparison of genomic data on simple sequence repeats may provide valuable information for understanding the pathogenicity and control measures. This study determined the distribution of a specific group of Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), in genome sequences of six Staphylococcus strains (Staphylococcus aureus COL, S.aureus MRSA252, S.aureus MSSA476, S.aureus Mu50, S.aureus MW2, S.aureus N315) and plasmid sequences of four Staphylococcus strains (Staphylococcus aureus COL pT181, Staphylococcus aureus MSSA pSAS, Staphylococcus aureus VRSAp, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus pN315 DNA) downloaded from the GenBank database for identifying abundance, distribution and composition of SSRs. The data obtained in the present study shows that (i) a large number of tandem repeats are distributed throughout the genome and plasmid sequences. (ii) Number of mononucleotide SSRs decreased rapidly with increase in size of repeat unit. (iii) Total frequency of SSRs in plasmid regions is less than genomic regions. (iv) In all investigated strains, ratios of AT/TA repeats are dominating over GC/CG repeats in genomics as well as plasmid sequences, and (v) Dinucleotide combination of AT is dominated in all the six Staphylococcus genome sequences.

A simple method for isolation of genomic DNA from fresh and dry leaves of Terminalia arjuna (Roxb.) Wight and Arnot

Current protocols for isolation of genomic DNA from Terminalia arjuna have their own limitations due to the presence of high content of gummy polysaccharides and polyphenols. DNA isolated by these protocols is contaminated with a yellowish, sticky and viscous matrix. In our modified DNA isolation method polysaccharides and polyphenols are removed prior to the precipitation of the DNA. Then the genomic DNA was precipitated using isopropanol. This protocol yielded a high molecular weight DNA isolated from fresh as well as dry leaves of T. arjuna, which was free from contamination and colour. Isolated DNA can be used for restriction digestion and PCR amplification. The main objective of the present protocol is to provide a simple method of isolation of DNA, using in house prepared reagents.