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Severe Influenza Pneumonia and Its Mimics in the Critical Care Unit
Published in Cheston B. Cunha, Burke A. Cunha, Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine, 2020
Specifically, dengue virus has a huge dynamic with multiple manifestations, from flu-like illnesses with headache, retro-orbital eye pain arthralgia, myalgia, and leukopenia to severe organ (liver, heart, and central nervous system) impairment and bleeding. Persistent vomiting, abdominal pain, and mucosal bleeding are important warning symptoms. The biphasic pattern of the fever, the truncal rash, and the elevated serum ferritin are key findings [38]. Typhoidal tularemia resulting from Francisella tularensis is characterized by productive cough, pleuritic chest pain, dyspnea, prostration, and frequently gastrointestinal symptoms. Typhoidal and pneumonic tularemia are the most likely forms to lead to sepsis and multi-organ failure [40].
Host-Parasite Interactions With Macrophages In Culture
Published in Hans H. Gadebusch, Phagocytes and Cellular Immunity, 2020
Lee S. F. Soderberg, Morris Solotorovsky
Francisella tularensis, another facultative intracellular parasite, has also been useful since strains of differing virulence are available. Thorpe and Marcus51 investigated three strains of F. tularensis differing by more than 10,000-fold in LDS0, mixed with uninduced peritoneal macrophages from normal rabbits. Conditions were adjusted to produce an average parasitization of five organisms per macrophage and viability counts were determined daily for 3 days. The avirulent organisms were killed within 48 hr. Organisms of intermediate virulence persisted longer but were reduced to 10% of the original inoculum at 72 hr. Virulent organisms remained relatively stationary in number for 36 to 48 hr and then increased to approximately tenfold.
Francisella
Published in Dongyou Liu, Handbook of Foodborne Diseases, 2018
Tularemia was reported as a new plague-like disease of California ground squirrels (Citellus spp.) by McCoy in 1911, and the etiological agent Francisella tularensis was isolated in 1912.1 The disease did circulate much earlier, in both Europe and Asia.2,3 Subsequently, F. tularensis has been associated with disease in a wider range of animal species than any other zoonotic disease.4F. tularensis is considered a potential agent of biological warfare and bioterrorism and as such is classified as a category A select agent and designated as a Tier 1 pathogen.5–7 The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have categorized F. tularensis as a top-priority pathogen of concern with respect to intentional misuse.8,9 In this context, respiratory tularemia (acquired through inhalation) is most feared. Natural transmission to humans, however, can also be through food or water, the bite of a blood-feeding arthropod, or by direct contact with infected animals. The infectious dose for humans can be as low as 10–25 bacteria.10–12 Human-to-human transmission of F. tularensis is exceedingly rare and of little clinical importance. Other Francisella spp. are etiological agents of francisellosis, a disease of fish and molluscs. These Francisella spp. may infect warm water aquaculture fish species including tilapia13–15 and cold water species such as farmed Atlantic cod.16–19
Re-establishing the utility of tetracycline-class antibiotics for current challenges with antibiotic resistance
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2022
Kerry L. LaPlante, Abhay Dhand, Kelly Wright, Melanie Lauterio
Tetracycline-class drugs inhibit bacterial protein synthesis by binding to bacterial ribosomes and interacting with the highly conserved 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in the 30S ribosomal subunit [6]. The drug class demonstrates a broad spectrum of activity against a wide range of gram-positive, gram-negative, and atypical pathogens, resulting in the extensive use of the tetracycline class in both humans and animals after the drugs were initially discovered [5]. Indications for treatment of bacterial infections include pneumonia; skin infections; bone and joint infections; sexually transmitted infections including chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea; intra-abdominal infections; biothreat pathogens, including Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis, and Francisella tularensis; and other specific bacterial pathogens such as Rickettsia spp, Borrelia spp, and nontuberculous mycobacteria. Tetracycline-class agents are recommended as first-line treatment options for many of these indications [7–13].
Antibacterial carbonic anhydrase inhibitors: an update on the recent literature
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2020
Claudiu T. Supuran, Clemente Capasso
F. tularensis is a Gram-negative coccobacillus and a zoonotic facultative intracellular pathogen of humans and many animals [105,106]. Three species belonging to the genus Francisella have been identified: F. tularensis, F. novicida, and F. philomiragia [105]. Among them, F. tularensis is highly infectious and causes a potentially debilitating febrile illness known as tularemia [106]. The recombinant β-CA (FtuCAβ) was cloned, expressed, purified and characterized [107,108]. This enzyme showed a kcat of 9.8 × 105 s−1 and a kcat/KM of 8.9 × 107 M−1 s−1 for the CO2 hydration, physiological reaction, being one of the most effective β-CAs known to date, with a catalytic activity only 1.68-times lower than that of the human(h) isoform hCA II.
The clinical impact of implementing GenMark ePlex blood culture panels for around-the-clock blood culture identification; a prospective observational study
Published in Infectious Diseases, 2020
Anders Krifors, Gunilla Rådberg, Sultan Golbob, Zhino Omar, Camilla Svensson, Daniel Heimer, Christina Carlander
The choice of the panel (BCID-GP or BCID-GN) was based on Methylene blue stain microscopy identification of cocci or rods . Methylene blue stain was chosen over Gram stain as it is easier to learn and faster to perform. Detection of a pan Gram positive or pan Gram negative target resulted in sequential testing of both panels. The fungal panel was not used. The regular laboratory biomedical analysts conducted all analyses as per the manufacturer’s instructions and within 1 h of indication of microbial growth. All preparations were conducted in a Class II biosafety cabinet. A time limit for the aerobic blood culture positivity was set to 72 h to avoid the risk of Brucella sp. or Francisella tularensis in the sample. No additional personnel were employed during the study period. At 7 am, all positive blood cultures were transported to the microbiology laboratory for culture-based identification, MALDI-TOF MS, and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST).