• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.85-91
• /
• 2012

The occupations involved in food animal production have long been recognized to carry significant health risks for workers, with special attention to injuries. However, risk of pathogen exposure in these occupations has been less extensively considered. Pathogens are a food safety issue and are known to be present throughout the food animal production chain. Workers employed at farms and slaughterhouses are at risk of pathogen exposure and bacterial infections. The industrialization of animal farming and the use of antimicrobials in animal feed to promote growth have increased the development of antimicrobial resistance. The changed nature of these pathogens exposes workers in this industry to new strains, thus modifying the risks and health consequences for these workers. These risks are not yet recognized by any work-related health and safety agency in the world.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.53 no.6
• /
• pp.870-877
• /
• 2020

Twenty-three Bacillus cereus strain isolated from commercial jeotgal were investigated for 11 toxin genes and susceptibility to 25 different antimicrobials. The hemolytic enterotoxins hblA, hblC, and hblD were detected in 13.0%, and non-hemolytic enterotoxins nheA, nheB, and nheC were detected in 26.1%, 100%, and 100% of the isolates, respectively. The positive rates of cytK, entFM, becT, hlyII, and ces were 73.9%, 60.9%, 26.1%, 8.7%, and 0.0%, respectively. According to the disk diffusion susceptibility test, all of the strains studied were resistant to cefuroxime, followed by cefoxitin (78.3%), oxacillin (78.3%), ampicillin (69.6%), penicillin G (69.6%), and amoxicillin (65.2%). However, all the strains were susceptible to 11 other antimicrobials, including amikacin, chloramphenicol, and ciprofloxacin. The average minimum inhibitory concentrations of amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cefuroxime against B. cereus were 462.9, 235.0, and 135.0 ㎍/mL, respectively. These results highlight the need for sanitizing commercial jeotgal, and provide evidence to help reduce the risk of jeotgal contamination by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.14-19
• /
• 2015

In a previous report, we identified several candidate antimicrobial peptides through de novo RNA sequencing of the centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans. Here, we identify and characterize one of these peptides, Scolopendrasin I. We identified the centipede antimicrobial peptide Cecropin from the centipede transcriptome using an SVM algorithm, and subsequently analyzed the amino acid sequence for predicted secondary structure using a GOR algorithm. We identified an alpha helical region of Cecropin and named it Scolopendrasin I. We then assessed antimicrobial and hemolytic activity of Scolopendrasin I. Scolopendrasin I showed antimicrobial activity against various microbes, including antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, in a radial diffusion assay. Scolopendrasin I had potent antibacterial activity against acne-associated microbes in a colony count assay and showed no hemolytic activity in a hemolysis assay. In addition, we confirmed that Scolopendrasin I bound to the surface of bacteria via a specific interaction with lipoteichoic acid and lipopolysaccharide, two components of bacterial cell membranes. In conclusion, the results presented here provide evidence that this is an efficient strategy for antimicrobial peptide candidate identification and that Scolopendrasin I has potential for successful antibiotic development.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the antimicrobial resistance, presence of ${\beta}$-lactamase genes and integrons in 83 ESBL-producing Escherichia coli isolated from Nakdong river and Geumho river in Daegu. Among the ${\beta}$-lactam antimicrobials, all isolates were resistant to ampicillin, cephalothin, cefamandole and cefotaxime, followed by piperacillin (98.8%), ampicillin/sulbactam (86.7%), aztreonam (60.2%) and cefepime (59.0%), whereas resistance to piperacillin/tazobacram, ticarcillin/clavulanic acid and cefoxitin was less than 30%. Many of the ESBL-producing Escherichia coli were also resistant to non-${\beta}$-lactams antimicrobials such as nalidixic acid (83.1%), sulfonamides (72.3%), ciprofloxacin (62.7%) and gentamicin (38.6%). All isolates showed resistance to seven or more antimicrobial agents. The most frequently detected gene was $bla_{TEM+CTX-M}$ (49.4%), followed by $bla_{CTX-M}$ (27.7%), $bla_{TEM}$ (6.0%) and $bla_{OXA}$ (1.2%). But $bla_{SHV}$ was not found. Class 1 integrons were found in 61.4% (51 isolates) of isolates, however, class 2 and 3 integrons were not detected. The results showed water from Nakdong river and Geumho river is contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli isolates. These results suggest the need for further investigation of antibiotic resistant bacteria to prevent public health impacts in the water environment.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.367-373
• /
• 2021

The antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus spp. and Gram negative strains present in air samples from waste sorting facilities was assessed. Phenotypic studies have revealed a high percentage of strains of Staphylococcus spp. resistant to methicillin. Genotypically and by RT-PCR, it was found that the mecA gene usually associated with methicillin resistance was present in 8% of the Staphylococcus strains isolated. About 30% of the Gram negative strains from the same samples also displayed resistance to meropenem and 79% of these were resistant to multiple antibiotics from different classes, namely cephalosporins and β-lactams. The results suggest that in professional activities with high levels of exposure to biological agents, the quantification and identification of the microbial flora in the work environment, with the determination of the presence of potential agents displaying multi-resistances is of relevance to the risk assessment. The personal protection of workers is particularly important relevance in these cases, since many of the strains that exhibit multi-resistance are potential opportunistic agents.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 1993

Anaerobic bacteria are suggested to be potential source for new antibiotics. In order to search for antibiotics from domestic origin, we collected 800 soil samples across Korean locations and could isolate as many as 989 anaerobic strains. Among them 10, strains were found to have good producing capacity of antibiotics. An anaerobe was finally selected due to secreting antibiotics having high antimicrobial activity towards multiple resistant microorganism(E coli JM 83) transformed by genetic engineering technique. Its morphological, physiological and biochemical charateristics were investigated, together with antimicrobial spectrum therefrom. On antimicrobial spectrum study, substance secreted from this strain, had no activities to fungus and yeast. The selected strain showed G(+) and coccal shape, on Gram, staining and electron scanning microscopy, respectively. Biochemically this strain utilized glucose, fructose lactose, sucrose, but did not arabinose, cellulose, rhamnose, sorbitol, trehalose, mannitol. Catalase test showed negative property. Optimal growth temperature was $37^{\circ}C$. The results obtained above suggest this strain Streptococcus faecium subspp. and we named it Streptococcus sp. An-21-1.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.8
• /
• pp.2695-2699
• /
• 2011

${\beta}$ Ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase III (KAS III) initiates fatty acid synthesis in bacteria and is a key target enzyme to overcome the antibiotic resistance problem. In our previous study, we found flavonoid inhibitors of Enterococcus faecalis KAS III and proposed three potent antimicrobial flavonoids against Enterococcus faecalis and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis with MIC values in the range of 128-512 ${\mu}g/mL$ as well as high binding affinities on the order from $10^6$ to $10^7\;M^{-1}$. Using these series of flavonoids, we conducted biological assays as well as docking study to find potent flavonoids inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with specificities against Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we propose that naringenin (5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone) and eriodictyol (5,7,3',4'-tetrahydroxyflavanone) are potent antimicrobial inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus KAS III with binding affinity of $3.35{\times}10^5$ and $2.01{\times}10^5\;M^{-1}$, respectively. Since Arg38 in efKAS III is replaced with Met36 in saKAS III, this key difference caused one hydrogen bond missing in saKAS III compared with efKAS III, resulting in slight discrepancy in their binding interactions as well as decrease in binding affinities. 4'-OH and 7-OH of these flavonoids participated in hydrogen bonding interactions with backbone carbonyl of Phe298 and Ser152, respectively. In particular, these flavonoids display potent antimicrobial activities against various MRSA strains in the range of 64 to 128 ${\mu}M$ with good binding affinities.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.816-823
• /
• 2022

The rapid spread of superbugs leads to the escalation of infectious diseases, which threatens public health. Endolysins derived from bacteriophages are spotlighted as promising alternative antibiotics against multi-drug resistant bacteria. In this study, we isolated and characterized the novel Salmonella typhimurium phage PBST08. Bioinformatics analysis of the PBST08 genome revealed putative endolysin ST01 with a lysozyme-like domain. Since the lytic activity of the purified ST01 was minor, probably owing to the outer membrane, which blocks accessibility to peptidoglycan, antimicrobial peptide cecropin A (CecA) was fused to the N-terminus of ST01 to disrupt the outer membrane. The resulting CecA::ST01 has been shown to have increased bactericidal activity against gram-negative pathogens including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter cloacae and the most affected target was A. baumannii. In the presence of 0.25 µM CecA::ST01, A. baumannii ATCC 17978 strain was completely killed and CCARM 12026 strain was wiped out by 0.5 µM CecA::ST01, which is a clinical isolate of A. baumannii and resistant to multiple drugs including carbapenem. Moreover, the larvae of Galleria mellonella could be rescued up to 58% or 49% by the administration of CecA::ST01 upon infection by A. baumannii 17978 or CCARM 12026 strain. Finally, the antibacterial activity of CecA::ST01 was verified using 31 strains of five gram-negative pathogens by evaluation of minimal inhibitory concentration. Thus, the results indicate that a fusion of antimicrobial peptide to endolysin can enhance antibacterial activity and the spectrum of endolysin where multi-drug resistant gram-negative pathogens can be efficiently controlled.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.33 no.9
• /
• pp.1179-1188
• /
• 2023

Escherichia coli, particularly multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, is a serious cause of healthcare-associated infections. Development of novel antimicrobial agents or restoration of drug efficiency is required to treat MDR bacteria, and the use of natural products to solve this problem is promising. We investigated the antimicrobial activity of dried green coffee (DGC) beans, coffee pulp (CP), and arabica leaf (AL) crude extracts against 28 isolated MDR E. coli strains and restoration of ampicillin (AMP) efficiency with a combination test. DGC, CP, and AL extracts were effective against all 28 strains, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12.5-50 mg/ml and minimum bactericidal concentration of 25-100 mg/ml. The CP-AMP combination was more effective than CP or AMP alone, with a fractional inhibitory concentration index value of 0.01. In the combination, the MIC of CP was 0.2 mg/ml (compared to 25 mg/ml of CP alone) and that of AMP was 0.1 mg/ml (compared to 50 mg/ml of AMP alone), or a 125-fold and 500-fold reduction, respectively, against 13-drug resistant MDR E. coli strains. Time-kill kinetics showed that the bactericidal effect of the CP-AMP combination occurred within 3 h through disruption of membrane permeability and biofilm eradication, as verified by scanning electron microscopy. This is the first report indicating that CP-AMP combination therapy could be employed to treat MDR E. coli by repurposing AMP.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.89-94
• /
• 2022

Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial agent used in various human personal care products against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of TCS-resistant bacteria in sewage water in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan, for the first time. TCS-supplemented Luria Bertani (LB) agar was used to isolate TCS-tolerant bacteria. A total of 17 TCS-resistant isolates were randomly selected from a large pool of bacteria that showed growth on TCS-supplemented LB agar. Based on gram staining and physiochemical characteristics, the isolated strains were identified as Salmonella typhi (n = 6), Escherichia coli (n = 4), Citrobacter freundii (n = 4), Proteus mirabilis (n = 1), Enterobacter cloacae (n = 1), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 1). The Triclosan mean minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for the isolates of Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter cloacae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were 23.66 ㎍ ml^-1, 18.75 ㎍ ml^-1, 42 ㎍ ml^-1, 32 ㎍ ml^-1, 64 ㎍ ml^-1, and 128 ㎍ ml^-1, respectively. The antibiogram revealed that all isolates were resistant to penicillin G (100%) and linezolid (100%), followed by ampicillin (94%), tetracycline (76%), tazobactam (76%), sulbactam/cefoperazone (64%), polymyxin PB (58%), amikacin (29.41%), aztreonam (29.41%), imipenem (5%), and gentamicin (5%). This is the first known study regarding the isolation of TCS-tolerant bacteria from sewage water in Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan. It was concluded that all the TCS-resistant isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR) gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria, mostly belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family.