• 한국임상수의학회지
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.78-82
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• 2023

Edwardsiella (E) tarda belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family and is a motile, gram-negative, rod-shaped, facultative anaerobe regarded as an opportunistic and food-borne pathogen in animals and humans. A 21-year-old male Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) died suddenly without any preliminary signs. Necropsy performed according to standard protocol revealed swollen abdomen with hemorrhagic congestions of the gastroenteric organs, ascites, and hemorrhagic exudates around the mouth. The liver showed discoloration, along with a severely swollen and multiple hemorrhages of the spleen, an elongated gallbladder, and a congested cortex and medullar lesion of kidneys. The stomach contained semi-liquid exudates and undigested chicken exuding a decayed odor. The stomach membranes were dark-gray in color with several cysts in the fundus lesions. Rod-shaped bacteria were found in the major organs by Giemsa staining, identified as E. tarda using a biochemical rapid diagnostic identification kit.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• 제47권1호
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• pp.52-61
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• 2022

Purpose: Most cases of oral and maxillofacial infections are usually easily treated by proper diagnosis, elimination of causative factors, and antibiotic therapy. However, the emergence and the increase of multidrug-resistant bacteria make treatment challenging. "ESKAPE" pathogens are the most common opportunistic organisms in nosocomial infections and have resistant to commonly used antibiotics. There are many medical reviews of ESKAPE pathogens, but few in dentistry. This study focuses on oral and maxillofacial infection especially with ESKAPE pathogens. The purpose of this study is to prepare feasible data about tracing and treatment of infection related to pathogens that may be beneficial to clinicians. Methods: A total of 154 patients with oral and maxillofacial infections were reviewed by analyzing retrospectively hospitalized data in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, Chosun University Hospital, Korea, past 5 years from January 2014 to December 2018. Based on the medical records and microbiological tests, the results were divided into two groups: infections with ESKAPE pathogens and other bacteria. Results: A total of 22 species were isolated from 154 patients. The proportion of ESKAPE pathogens among all bacterial isolates collected from infected patients was 39.6%. Causative factors, especially in post-operative infection, showed a statistically significant correlation to ESKAPE infections (29 cases). And average of treatment period in ESKAPE group was longer than non-ESKAPE groups. Overall, Klebsiella pneumoniae (60.7%) was the most frequently isolated ESKAPE pathogen. And high antibiotic resistance rates had been detected in the ESKAPE during the five-year period. Conclusions: Infections with ESKAPE pathogens are now a problem that can no longer be overlooked in Dentistry. Based on results of this study, ESKAPE pathogens were highly associated with post-operative or opportunistic infections. Clinicians should be careful about these antibiotic resistant pathogens and use appropriate antibiotics to patients while having dental treatments.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.97-102
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• 2011

Acinetobactor baumanii 는 기회 감염균으로 carbapenem의 사용이 증가하면서 MDRAB와 같은 내성균으로 출현하고 있다. 저자들은 경희의료원에서 carbapenem을 투약받지 않았더라도 집중치료실에 장기간 입원하여 기관삽관과 인공호흡기 치료를 받거나 침습적인 수술을 받아 도관을 유지하는 환아에서 MDRAB가 동정되었다는 것을 확인하였다. carbapenem을 사용하지 않았더라도 장기간 집중치료실에 입원할 것으로 예상되는 환자들에게 원내전파를 통한 감염을 최소화하기 위하여 원내감염관리에 최선을 다해야 할 것이기에 이상의 증례를 통하여 보고한다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제27권8호
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• pp.1539-1548
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• 2017

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is an opportunistic pathogen that commonly causes fatal infections in cystic fibrosis and burn patients as well as in patients who are hospitalized or have impaired immune systems. P. aeruginosa infections are difficult to treat owing to the high resistance of the pathogen to conventional antibiotics. Despite several efforts, no effective prophylactic vaccines against P. aeruginosa are currently available. In this study, we investigated the activity of the CIA06 adjuvant system, which is composed of alum and de-O-acylated lipooligosaccharide, on a P. aeruginosa outer membrane protein (OMP) antigen vaccine in mice. The results indicated that CIA06 significantly increased the antigen-specific IgG titers and opsonophagocytic activity of immune sera against P. aeruginosa. In addition, the antibodies induced by the CIA06-adjuvanted vaccine exhibited higher cross-reactivity with heterologous P. aeruginosa strains. Finally, mice immunized with the CIA06-adjuvanted vaccine were effectively protected from lethal P. aeruginosa challenge. Based on these data, we suggest that the CIA06 adjuvant system might be used to promote the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the P. aeruginosa OMP vaccine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제17권8호
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• pp.1344-1352
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• 2007

An opportunistic human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, contains the major catalase KatA, which is required to cope with oxidative and osmotic stresses. As an attempt to uncover the $H_2O_2$-dependent regulatory mechanism delineating katA gene expression, four prototrophic $H_2O_2$-sensitive mutants were isolated from about 1,500 TnphoA mutant clones of P. aeruginosa strain PA14. Arbitrary PCR and direct cloning of the transposon insertion sites revealed that one insertion is located within the katA coding region and two are within the coding region of oxyR, which is responsible for transcriptional activation of several antioxidant enzyme genes in response to oxidative challenges. The fourth insertion was within PA3815 (IscR), which encodes a homolog of the Escherichia coli iron-sulfur assembly regulator, IscR. The levels of catalase and SOD activities were significantly reduced in the iscR mutant, but not in the oxyR mutant, during the normal planktonic culture conditions. These results suggest that both IscR and OxyR are required for the optimal resistance to $H_2O_2$, which involves the expression of multiple antioxidant enzymes including KatA.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제79권2호
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• pp.101-103
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• 2016

Nocardia species are aerobic, gram-positive pathogens found worldwide in soil. Nocardia is considered an opportunistic pathogen, and its infection mostly occurs in immunocompromised patients. We report a case of Nocardia farcinica induced mediastinitis and pneumonia that occurred in a 64-year-old male patient who had no significant medical history except for hypertension. He visited another hospital with a complaint of dyspnea and left chest wall pain. The symptoms arose 7 days ago without any trauma and they worsened. A mediastinal mass was found on computed tomography scan. After being transferred to our hospital for further evaluation, he was diagnosed with mediastinitis and pneumonia. As N. farcinica was found to be the causative organism by 16S rRNA sequencing, proper antibiotic therapy including trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole was initiated immediately. After this, the patient improved and he was discharged. If an infection has a disseminating course, nocardiosis cannot be excluded even in immunocompetent patients. Once the diagnosis is established, prompt antibiotic therapy should be performed based on the severity.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.96-103
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• 2017

Nocardia species (spp.) are opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised hosts. The genus Nocardia contains more than 70 species. Nocardia takedensis has been recently reported as a new species of the genus Nocardia. In this study, we describes the first clinical isolate of N. takedensis from the skin lesion in Busan, Korea. For the identification of clinical isolate to the species level as N. takedensis, classical methods (colony morphology, biochemical characteristics, and antimicrobial susceptibility), molecular method (16S rRNA gene sequencing), and MS (mass spectrometry) analysis were conducted. Clinical isolates grew slowly on the culture media (5% sheep blood agar and chocolate agar) under 5% $CO_2$ condition. Especially, carotene pigmentation was detected well on the media. Using mass spectrometry, Nocardia isolate was not identified to the species level. However, molecular method based on 16S rRNA sequencing confirmed the isolate as N. takedensis correctly. N. takedensis isolate was partial positive for acid-fast bacilli on the Ziehl-Neelsen method. And it was observed to be resistance to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ciprofloxacin. Our results provide useful information to develop optimal identification protocol of N. takedensis in clinical diagnostic laboratories.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.709-717
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• 2015

Airborne bacteria from hog farms may have detrimental impacts on human health, particularly in terms of antibiotic resistance and pathogen zoonosis. Despite human health risks, very little is known about the composition and diversity of airborne bacteria from hog farms and hog-related spray fields. We used pyrosequencing analysis of 16S rRNA genes to compare airborne bacterial communities in a North Carolina hog farm and lagoon spray field. In addition, we isolated and identified antibiotic-resistant bacteria from both air samples. Based on 16S rRNA gene pyrosequence analysis, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the dominant phyla in airborne bacterial communities from both hog farm and spray field sites. Within the Firmicutes genera, Clostridium spp. were more abundant in the hog farm, whereas Staphylococcus spp. were higher in the spray field. The presence of opportunitic pathogens, including several Staphylococcus species and Propionibacterium acnes, was detected in both bioaerosol communities based on phylogenetic analysis. The isolation and identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from air samples also showed similar results with dominance of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria in both hog farm and spray field air. Thus, the existence of opportunistic pathogens and antibiotic resistant bacteria in airborne communities evidences potential health risks to farmers and other residents from swine bioaerosol exposure.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.68-74
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• 2011

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an aerobic, Gram-negative, glucose-nonfermenting bacterium, which has emerged as a serious opportunistic pathogen. Recently, outbreaks of carbapenem resistant P. aeruginosa give rise to significant therapeutic challenges for treating nosocomial infections. The genes of metallo-${\beta}$-lactamase (MBL), a powerful carbapenemase, are carried as a part of the mobile gene cassettes inserted into integrons playing an important role in rapid dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes among bacterial isolates. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of integron in imipenem resistant P. aeruginosa isolates. A total of 61 consecutive, non-duplicate, and imipenem resistant P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from a university hospital in the Chungcheong province of Korea. We employed repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) method for the selection of clonally different P. aerusinosa strains. PCR and DNA sequencing were conducted for the detection of integrons. Twenty-one clonally different P. aeruginosa strains were isolated. Only one (P28) of the strains harbored $bla_{VIM-2}$ that was found as gene cassettes in class 1 integrons. Four of 21 carbapenem resistant P. aeruginosa strains harbored class 1 integron containing aminoglycoside resistance determinant. All of the integrons detected in the study contained more than one resistance gene cassette, which can mediate resistance to multiple antibiotics. To prevent further spreading of the multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa, conseguent monitoring and clinical polices are required.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.90-93
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• 2003

The antibacterial activity of chitosan-alginate-Fe(II) complex (CAFC) against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and an opportunistic pathogen, Candida albicans, was investigated. A concentration of 1 mg/1 was needed to inhibit the growth of S. aureus and E. coli, while 100 mg/liter was sufficient for the growth inhibition of Candida albicans. The ion leakage of potassium and phosphate from E. coli cell and the penetration of ethidium bromide dye into it indicate that CAFC might be able to increase the cell permeability and consequently cellular leakage, thus leading to cell plasmolysis. Scanning electronmicroscope showed that E. coli cells treated with CAFC became irregular, swelling and expanded. In a field trial, control piglets showed average mortality of up to 60% within 3 days after the onset of diarrhea. In contrast, CAFC-treated groups without mortality was decreased to average 56% on the 1 st day after the treatment, and average 7% on the 3rd day. After then, piglets with diarrhea was not found.