• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 2000

In this study, the distribution of the mec regulator genes and the presence of the mutation in mecI gene and mec promoter region among 50 MRSA clinical isolates derived from a single university hospital in Korea were analyzed. Among 50 MRSA strains, 13 strains had a deletion of mecI gene, and 37 strains were found to have mutations in mecI gene or mecA promoter region corresponding to a presumptive operator of mecA, i.e., the binding site of the repressor protein. Furthermore, in order to track the evolution of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) distributed in Korea, we determined the MRSA clonotype by combined use of genetic organization patterns of mec regulator genes, ribotype, and coagulase type. As the result, 48 of 50 MRSA strains could be classified into four distinct clones. Clonotype I is characterized by the coagulase type 3, deletion of mecI gene, and ribotype 1 shared by NCTC10442, the first reported MRSA isolate in England (9 strains). Clonotype II is characterized by the coagulase type 4, C to T substitution at position 202 of mecI gene, and ribotypes 2, 3 and 4 shared by 85/3619 strain isolated in Austria (10 strains). Clonotype III is characterized by the coagulase type 2, mutations of mecA promoter region and/or mecI, and ribotypes 4, 5, and 6 shared by N315 strain isolated in Japan (25 strains). Clonotype IV is characterized by the coagulase type 4, deletion of mecI gene, and ribotype 7 (4 strains). The clonality of two strains could not be determined due to their undefined ribotype.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.964-969
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• 2006

The efficacy of garlic extract and $PGF_2{\alpha}$ in the treatment of endometritis in cows was evaluated. A total of 26 parous cows affected with endometritis were randomly allocated into three groups. Group I (n = 10) animals were infused (IU) with 10 ml garlic extract mixed with 90 ml normal saline, three times at 12 h interval starting from the day of estrum, whereas the animals of Group II (n = 10) were treated with a single injection of $PGF_2{\alpha}$ (25 mg Lutalyse) on the $10^{th}$ to $12^{th}$ day after estrus, and group III (n = 6) remained as control. Cervico-vaginal mucus (CVM) was collected from each animal at pre- and post-treatment estrus and subjected to white side test, pH determination and total bacterial load. The clinical recovery of cows was assessed by negative white side test reaction, pH value and total bacterial count of CVM at subsequent estrus. The recovered animals were inseminated with frozen-thawed semen twice at 12 h intervals and pregnancy was confirmed at 45-60 days following insemination. A significant decline (p<0.05) in pH of CVM was observed in both the treatment groups at subsequent estrus. After treatment there was a significant (p<0.05) reduction in bacterial load, whereas, it was increased in control group. A total number of 65 isolates were identified in CVM samples comprising mostly of facultative anaerobic bacteria. Plasma $T_4$ and $T_3$ concentrations were increased in all the treated animals, whereas, a decline was observed in cortisol levels following treatment. The overall conception rate was 50% in treated groups as compared to nil pregnancy in the control.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.477-481
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• 2013

Purpose: Ureaplasma colonization is related with perinatal complications in preterm infants. Little is known about the difference in virulence among various Ureaplasma urealyticum serovars. The aim of this study was to determine U. urealyticum serovars of preterm infants in order to assess whether any of the serovars were associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Methods: Three hundred forty-four preterm infants with a gestational age less than 34 weeks admitted to Gangnam Severance Hospital neonatal intensive care unit from July 2011 to December 2012 were included in this study. Tracheal and gastric aspirations were conducted on infants to confirm Ureaplasma colonization. Ureaplasma colonization was confirmed in 9% of infants, of these, serovars were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: A total of 31 infants (gestational age, $29.3{\pm}3.1$ weeks; birth weight, $1,170{\pm}790g$) were U. urealyticum positive. The Ureaplasma positive group treated for more days with oxygen and ventilation than the negative group (P<0.05). Histologic chorioamnionitis and moderate to severe BPD were more frequent in the Ureaplasma positive group than in the negative group (P<0.05). U. urealyticum isolates were either found to be a mixture of multiple serovars (32%), serovar 9 alone or combined with other serovars (39%), serovar 11 (26%), 2 (13%), 8 (10%), 10 (13%), and 13 (25%). No individual serovars were significantly associated with moderate to severe BPD and chorioamnionitis. Conclusion: This is the first study to describe the distribution of U. urealyticum serovars from Korean preterm infants. Ureaplasma -colonized infants showed higher incidence of BPD and chorioamnionitis.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.314-318
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• 2007

Purpose: Pressure sore wound develops inevitably in long-term, immobilized and hospitalized patients. Sore wound infection is common problem and makes healing process difficult. We aimed to identify the pathogens of the purulent discharge in sore wound and to obtain information for appropriate antibiotics through a sensitivity test Methods: The bacteriologic study was made on 120 cases of patients who admitted or visited our hospital from 2004 January to 2005 December for sore wound treatment. Culture material was collected in BBL transport media with cotton swab and cultured by MacConkey agar plate. The method of MIC by VITEK and Microscan was used for sensitivity test. Results: Among 120 specimens, organisms were isolated from 77(64.2%) cases. Gram positive organisms were cultured in 73 specimens, Gram negative organisms in 46 specemens, and fungi in 2 specimens. Mixed infection by Gram (+) and Gram (-) bacteria were observed in 34 specimens. Among them, S. aureus was the most common isolate in 24(31.2%) patients and 10 (13.0%) S. Aureus isolates were MRSA. The most prevalent Gram-negative organism was Escherichia coli in 20 patients(25.9%). Vancomycin and teicoplanin showed highest sensitivity to Gram-positive organisms and imipenem and amikacin to Gram-negative organisms. Conclusion: Pressure sore wound demands consideration of multimodal therapeutic aspects and these findings would be useful informations to physicians, nurses and clinical assistants in understanding the nature of sore wound and selecting appropriate antibiotics.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.778-785
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• 1999

To detect CDV RNA in clinical samples and differentiate prevailing CDV virulent strains affecting susceptible animals from attenuated vaccine strains, we performed RT-PCR, RFLP, and sequencing. CDV specific primers were generated from the middle part of nucleocapsid gene. The expected size of PCR products, 519 bp, was observed in tissues of Jindo dog, poodle dog, badger, fourteen of nineteen blood samples as well as 5 vaccine strains including domestic and imported products. The PCR products obtained from tissues and PBMCs of infected animals were digested to 317- and 202-bp fragments by Bam HI, but the products obtained from four of five vaccine strains and Lederle strain were not digesed by Bam HI. Only one vaccine strain of which the PCR products were digested by Bam HI was confirmed as imported vaccine, modified Synider Hill strain. Based on seqencing data obtained from the 519-bp products, it was confirmed that Bam HI restriction site tends to be conserved in field isolates compared to the commercially available attenuated vaccine strains. Partial nucleotide sequences of CDV NP gene obtained from tissues of Jindo dog, poodle and badger shared 100% homology each other, whereas the nucleotide sequences showed 96.3, 96.5, 93.6 and 93.4% homology with Yanaka (virulent), Han95 (virulent), Lederle (attenuated) and Onderstepoort (attenuated) strain, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.327-335
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• 2016

A novel Amycolatopsis strain KCTC 29142 was isolated and characterized based on the polyphasic taxonomic analysis including morphological observation, phylogenetic analysis, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics. The ethyl acetate extract of strain KCTC 29142 culture broth showed strong antibacterial activity and the active compound was identified as siderochelin A, a ferrous-ion chelating compound. In this study, siderochelin A showed good activity against multi-drug resistant pathogens, including Acinetobacter baumanii, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The minimum inhibitory activity against clinical isolates was also determined.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.453-459
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• 2007

We developed a multiplex PCR (mPCR) assay to simultaneously detect Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Corynebacterium spp. and seudomona aeruginosa. This method employs a single tube and multiple specific primers which yield 200, 281, 346, 423, 542, and 1,427 bp PCR products, respectively. All the PCR products were easily detected by agarose gel electrophoresis and were sequenced to confirm the specificity of the reactions. To test this method, DNA extracted from urine samples was collected from 96 sexually transmitted disease or prostatitis patients at a local hospital clinical center, and were subjected to the mPCR assay. The resulting amplicons were cloned and sequenced to exactly match the sequences of known pathogenic isolates. N. gonorrhoeae and Corynebacterium spp. were the most frequently observed pathogens found in the STDs and prostatitis patients, respectively. Unexpectedly, P. aeruginosa was also detected in some of the STD and prostatitis samples. More than one pathogen species was found in 10% and 80.7% of STD and prostatitis samples, respectively, indicating that STD and prostatitis patients may have other undiagnosed and associates. The sensitivity of the assay was determined by sing purified DNA from six pathogenic laboratory strains and revealed that this technique could detect pathogenic DNA at concentrations ranging from 0.018 to $1.899\;pg/{\mu}l$. Moreover, the specificities of this assay were found to be highly efficient. Thus, this mPCR assay may be useful for the rapid diagnosis of causative infectious STDs and prostatitis. useful for the infectious STDs and prostatitis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1848-1852
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• 2008

Salmonella remains a primary cause of food poisoning worldwide, and massive outbreaks have been witnessed in recent years. Therefore, this study investigated the antimicrobial activity of methyl gallate (MG), which exhibited good antibacterial activity ($MIC=3.9-125{\mu}g/ml$) against all the bacterial strains tested. In a checkerboard dilution test, MG markedly lowered the MICs of ciprofloxacin (CPFX) against Salmonella. The combined activity of CPFX and MG against Salmonella resulted in fractional inhibitory concentrations (FICs) ranging from 0.0037 to 0.015 and from 0.24 to $7.8{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Meanwhile, the FIC index ranged from 0.31-0.37, indicating a marked synergistic relationship between CPFX and MG against Salmonella. Time-kill assays also showed a decrease in the CFU/ml between the combination and the more active compound. Therefore, this study demonstrated that MG and CPFX can act synergistically in inhibiting Salmonella in vitro.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.879-889
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• 2015

The outbreak of viral diseases caused by viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) and red seabream iridovirus (RSIV) have been reported in cultured olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. VHSV has been a serious viral disease that infects the olive flounders in South Korea. Clinical signs of VHSV infection are skin darkening, abdominal distension and haemorrhages. Outbreaks of fish iridoviral disease was first reported from red seabream, Pagrus major farms in Japan. Recently, iridovirus infection have occurred frequently from olive flounder farms in South Korea. In this study, disease surveillance was performed to monitor the prevalence of VHSV and RSIV in olive flounder in 2014. The samples were collected from 60 different olive flounder farms in Jeju from April, May, September, November and December in 2014. RT-PCR (VHSV) or PCR (RSIV) results showed that VHSV were detected in 5 farms, but RSIV has not been detected in any farms. The migration of olive flounder was restricted for the quarantine in 5 farms of VHS outbreak. The nucleocapsid protein (N) gene and glycoprotein (G) gene sequences of the 5 Korean VHSV isolates were successfully amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the VHSV sequences reported here together comparison with the nucleotide sequences available from the GenBank database. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that most of Korea VHSV belong to the genotype IVa and closely related to the strains from Japan and China.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.187-192
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• 2007

REOviruses (Respiratory Enteric Orphan viruses) are ubiquitous, non-enveloped viruses containing 10 segments of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) as their genome. They are common isolates of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of humans but are not associated with severe disease and are therefore considered relatively benign. An intriguing characteristic of reovirus is its innate oncolytic potential, which is linked to the transformed state of the cell. When immortalized cells are transfected in vitro with activated oncogenes such as Ras, Sos, v-erbB, or c-myc, they became susceptible to reovirus infection and subsequent cellular lysis, indicating that oncogene signaling pathways are exploited by reovirus. This observation has led to the use of the virus in clinical trials as an anti-cancer agent against oncogenic tumors. In addition to the exploitation of oncogene signaling, reovirus may further utilize host immune responses to enhance its antitumor activity in vivo due to its innate interferon induction ability. Reovirus is, however, not entirely benign to immunocompromised animal models. Reovirus causes so-called "black feet syndrome" in immunodeficient mice and can also harm neonatal animals. Because cancer patients often undergo immunosuppression due to heavy chemo/radiation-treatments or advanced tumor progression, this pathogenic response may be a hurdle in virus-based anticancer therapies. However, a genetically attenuated reovirus variant derived from persistent reovirus infection of cells in vitro is able to exert potent anti-tumor activity with significantly reduced viral pathogenesis in immunocompromised animals. Importantly, in this instance the attenuated, reovirus maintains its oncolytic potential while significantly reducing viral pathogenesis in vivo.