• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-84
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• 2014

Periodic analysis of local epidemiologic data of prevalent pathogens of blood culture can provide clinicians with relevant information to guide empirical antibiotic therapy. In this study, we analyzed a pattern of change of causative microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance at a tertiary medical center in Chungcheong province from 2003 to 2012, retrospectively. Of 70,258 blood specimens cultured, 6,063 (8.6%) were positive. Among the positive isolates, 95.9% were aerobic or facultative anaerobic bacteria, 0.1% were anaerobes, and 3.9% were fungi. Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CoNS) (32.9%), Escherichia coli (16.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (9.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.4%), and ${\alpha}$-hemolytic Streptococcus (5.9%) were commonly isolated bacteria, and Candida albicans (1.4%) was the most commonly isolated fungi. Enterococcus faecium progressively increased but Streptococcus pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Proteus species gradually decreased over a period of 10 years. The multidrug-resistant microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), cefotaxime-resistant E. coli, imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IRPA) and imipenem-resistant A. baumannii (IRAB), were significantly increased. Therefore, there is a need for a more strict control of antibiotics and a more updated guideline for the treatment of bloodstream infection.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.29-31
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• 2006

In a previous report, we showed that enzyme $IIA^{Glc}(EIIA^{Glc}$ of Escherichia coli phosphotransferase system (PTS) interacts with and regulates activity of FrsA (fermentation/respiration switch protein). A BLAST search revealed that orthologs of FrsA exist only in some Gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, Yersinia pestis, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio parahemeolyticus, and Photorhabdus luminescens and all of these species are facultative anaerobes belonging to the ${\gamma}-proteobacterial$ group, and most of them are highly pathogenic. Ligand-fishing experiments using $EIIA^{Glc}$ of Vibrio vulnificus ($vEIIA^{Glc}$) as bait revealed that $vEIIA^{Glc}$ also interacts with vFrsA in a phosphorylation state-dependent manner. The frsA mutant of Vibrio vulnificus showed remarkably reduced cytotoxicity to HeLa cells and reduced lethality to mice compared to wild type. Comparison of extracellular proteomes between the mutant and wild type indicated that hemolysin was not produced in the frsA mutant. Characterization of another protein interacting with $vEIIA^{Glc}$ will be discussed.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.577-609
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• 1995

Bacteria have been regarded as one of the most important factors in pulpal and periapical diseases. Streptococci are frequently isolated facultative anaerobes in infected root canals. Recently molecular biological techniques have been rapidly progressed. This study was designed to apply the molecular biological tools to the identification and classification of streptococci in the endodontic microbiology. Streptococci isolated from infected root canals were identified with both Vitek Systems and API 20 STREP. Identification results were somewhat different in several strains of streptococci. Eighteen streptococci and enterococcal was difficult so to digest plasmid DNA using Hind III and EcoRI to differentiate strains by restriction enzyme analysis of plasmid DNA. 16S rDNA of chromosome was amplified by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and then restricition fragment length polymorphism(RFLP) using several restriction enzymes was observed. The molecular mass of 16S rDNA of chromosomal DNA was approximately 1.4kb. There were three to five RFLP patterns using eight restriction enzymes. RFLP patterns digested with CfoI which recognizes four base sequences were identical in all stains. Hind III which recognizes six base sequences could not digest the 16S rDNA. Restriction enzymes which recognize five base sequences were suitable for RFLP pattern analysis. At least three different restriction enzymes were needed to compare each strains. 16S rDNA PCR-RFLP was simple and rapid to differentiate and classify strains and could be used in the epidemiological study of root canal infections.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.357-369
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• 2005

Streptococci are Gram-positive, facultative anaerobes and have no catalase activities. Among mutans streptococci containing ${\alpha}-type$ hemolytic activity, S. mutans is a causative agent for dental caries. As well as acid production yielding the demineralization of tooth enamel, adherence and colonization of S. mutans to the teeth are also important for its virulence. These early colonization are accomplished by the bacterial fibrillar protein, Antigen I/II (Ag I/II) and glucosyltransferase (GTF). Therefore, Ag I/II and GTF are reasonable targets for the development of vaccine against S. mutans GS-5. The ag I/II and gtfD genes from S. mutans GS-5 were cloned and sequenced. Sequence analyses showed the nucleotides sequence of cloned genes had high homology to the sequences previously reported. The sequence alignment of 280 nucleotides between the cloned Ag I/II and the available sequence of the corresponding S. mutans GS-5 showed the perfect match. Comparing with the sequence of gtfD from S. mutans UA159, the corresponding nucleotide sequence of S. mutans GS-5 showed some mismatches and the mismatches introduced changes in four residues out of 105 amino acids, yielding four missense mutations.