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Clinical Applications of Immunoassays
Published in Richard O’Kennedy, Caroline Murphy, Immunoassays, 2017
Streptococcus pneumonia, commonly known as pneumococcus, is the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia and is responsible for most respiratory infections requiring hospitalisation. Pneumococcal cell wall components can be detected in various bodily fluids, including blood, sputum and urine. The pneumococcal urinary antigen can be detected using immunochromatographic urinary assays with sensitivities of 70–90% and specificities of 80–100% [34]. The American Thoracic Society recommends the use of the pneumococcal antigen in patients who have failed outpatient antibiotic treatment, who require intensive care, have a history of alcohol abuse, a low white cell count, asplenia and in those who have a pleural effusion. Several serotypes, including 3, 6A, 6B, 9N and 19F, are associated with a poorer patient outcome. As pneumococcal resistance is increasing in incidence worldwide, identifying resistant strains using rapid detection methods will become a priority in the treatment of this disease.
Antibiotics: The Battle with the Microbes
Published in Richard J. Sundberg, The Chemical Century, 2017
The macrolide antibiotics include erythromycin A, which was discovered in 1952, and several semisynthetic derivatives. They are characterized by large ring lactone structures. One derivative is azithromycin, in which the lactone ring is expanded by inclusion of nitrogen. Erythromycin A and its derivatives are used in treatment of a variety of respiratory tract infections. They are also used in treatment of digestive tract infections including Salmonella and Shigella. They are also active against Helicobacter pylori, the organism responsible for many ulcers. The macrolides bind to ribosomal RNA and interfere with protein synthesis, a mechanism generally similar to that of streptomycin. There is considerable cross-resistance with penicillins, particularly for Streptococcus pneumoniae. The resistance mechanisms include enhanced efflux of the drug and modification of the bacterial RNA by methylation. Several of the macrolide antibiotics are shown in Scheme 12.4.
Exposure characteristics of airborne bacteria during a haze pollution event at Qinling Mountain, China
Published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2019
Rui Lu, Chunlan Fan, Pengxia Liu, Yuzhen Qi, Feifei Mu, Zhengsheng Xie, John Kerr White, Anne Mette Madsen, Yanpeng Li
Several potential pathogenic bacteria and opportunistic pathogens (Gou et al. 2016; Liu et al. 2018) at the genus level were also detected in this research (Table 3). Based on the average relative abundance of these potential pathogens, their dominance followed the order of Bacillus (28.78%), Pseudomonas (16.33%), Streptococcus (0.41%), Burkholderia (0.39%), Enterococcus (0.21%), Acinetobacter (0.075%), Clostridium (0.026%), Staphylococcus (0.025%), Mycobacterium (0.017%), Serratia (0.016%), Corynebacterium (0.014%), Micrococcus (0.010%), Delftia (0.007%), Enterobacter (0.006%), and Stenotrophomonas (0.004%). It is worth noting that Vibrio, Legionella, Haemophilus, and Nocardia which were detected in Hangzhou (Liu et al. 2018) were not detected in this study. Neisseria, which can cause cerebrospinal meningitis, was also found in Xi'an (Li et al. 2015) but its relative abundance of it was almost zero in this study. Du et al. (2018) found some pathogens were higher in the suburban area than in the urban area of Beijing. These differences could be attributed to the differences in the sources of samples, mainly between urban and mountain environment. The samples were also collected at different sampling time and also could have caused various ongoing epidemic diseases related to the season when the airborne microbes were collected from the different regions. Although these microbial genera relative abundances in the air samples were far lower than other dominant genera, they can still affect the human health through respiratory tract infections (Bertolini et al. 2013). For example, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, which are species of Mycobacterium, can cause tuberculosis and leprosy in humans, respectively (King et al. 2017). Govan and Deretic (1996) found respiratory infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia play a major role in the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis in children worldwide (O'Brien et al. 2009). Hence, more attention should be given to newborn babies and the elderly people during haze days (Liu et al. 2018).