Pesquisa: SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

The antimicrobial susceptibility of 64 strains of S. pneumoniae obtained from three hospitals in Porto Alegre, Brazil, isolated between 2004 and 2005, was determined, using the agar-dilution method. The prevalence of resistant (intermediate and full resistance) strains to trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole, penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, and ceftriaxone were 68%, 28%, 18%, 15%, 3%, and 1%, respectively. All strains were susceptible to vancomycin. Amo (mais) ng 18 penicillin-resistant strains, 7 were resistant to at least two other antimicrobial drugs. All erythromycin-resistant strains, except one, contained the erm(B) and/or mef(A/E) genes, with a predominance of the former. The resistance rate to penicillin and erythromycin in Porto Alegre remained stable. The combination of trimethoprim/ sulphamethoxazole should not be recommended to treat pneumococcal infections, because of the high rate of resistant strains.

Urogenital infections affect millions of people every year worldwide. The treatment of these diseases usually requires the use of antimicrobial agents, and more recently, the use of probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) cultures for the management of vaginal infections has been extensively studied. In this work, 11 vaginal lactobacilli isolates, previously obtained from healthy patients, were studied to screen microorganisms with probiotic properties against Candida spp. T (mais) he LAB were tested for their ability of auto-aggregation, coaggregation with C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. krusei, and C. tropicalis, adhesion to Caco-2 epithelial cells and production of lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). All lactobacilli isolates tested were able to auto-aggregate (ranging from 25.3% to 75.4% assessed at 4 hours of incubation) and to co-aggregate with the four Candida species into different degrees; among them L. crispatus showed the highest scores of coaggregation. The highest amount of lactic acid was produced by L. salivarius (13.9 g/l), followed by L. johnsonii (6.5 g/l), L. acidophilus (5.5 g/l), and L. jensenii (5.4 g/l). All isolates produced H2O2 , but the highest levels (3 -10 mg/l) were observed for L. acidophilus, L. crispatus, L. gasseri, L. johnsonii, and L. vaginalis. Only L. agilis, L. jensenii, L. johnsonii and L. ruminus were able to adhere to epithelial Caco-2 cells. Among the isolates evaluated, L agilis, L. jensenii, L. johnsonii, and L. ruminus exhibited simultaneously several desirable properties as potential probiotic strains justifying future studies to evaluate their technological properties in different pharmaceutical preparations for human use.

Due to the fact the incubation conditions may influence the microbiological evaluation of water for dialysis, the objective of the present study was the comparison of the efficiency of R2A and PCA media in the enumeration of heterotrophic bacteria in 193 samples of water collected in dialysis clinics from 12 cities in São Paulo, between October and December 2007. Results showed counts significantly greater in R2A, suggesting that enumeration should be carried out in R2A, (mais) suggesting that enumeration should be carried out in R2A agar associated with longer incubation times, because of the greater sensitivity.

Patients suffering of diseases that affect central nervous system may be considered more susceptible to the infectious diseases of mouth. Sixty-nine patients suffering of cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and metal retardation were submitted to saliva examination for the presence of Candida spp. before and after a procedure of dental cleaning. The isolates were submitted to assay for verifying phospholipase production. 55.10% of the patients provided isolation of Candida sp (mais) p. The frequency of isolation obtained before dental procedure was: C. albicans (83.33%), C. krusei (8.33%) and C. kefyr, C. parapsilosis and C. glabrata (2.78% each). The frequency after the procedure was: C. albicans (68.57%), C. parapsilosis (11.43%), C. krusei and C. kefyr (8.57% each) and Candida glabrata (2.86%). We verified significantly difference (p < 0.01) between populations obtained at the two examinations. Phospholipase production was verified only among C. albicans strains and the proportion of producers was higher when testing isolates obtained after dental cleaning procedure. Studies focused on Candida spp. isolation are useful for better comprehension of the role of these yeasts on the oral flora from patients with cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and metal retardation.

This study aimed at determining prevalence and resistance profile of Gram-negative bacilli isolated from nasopharynx of children attending day-care centers in Goiânia (Brazil). P. aeruginosa (100.0%), E. coli (50.0%), K. pneumoniae (35.3%), and E. aerogenes (16.7%) were the most frequent multi-drug resistant microorganisms isolated. No production of ESBL was detected.

This study aimed to identify the constituents of the essential oil from Hyptis suaveolens (L.) leaves using a Gas Chromatograph -Mass Spectrometer and assess its inhibitory effect on some potentially pathogenic Aspergilli (A. flavus, A. parasiticus, A. ochraceus, A. fumigatus and A. niger). Eucaliptol (47.64 %) was the most abundant component in the oil, followed for gama-ellemene (8.15 %), beta-pynene (6.55 %), (+)3-carene (5.16 %), trans-beta-cariophyllene (4.69 %) and (mais) germacrene (4.86 %). The essential oil revealed an interesting anti-Aspergillus property characterized by a Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration of 40 and 80 µL/mL, respectively. The oil at 80 and 40 µL/mL strongly inhibited the mycelial growth of A. fumigatus and A. parasiticus along 14 days. In addition, at 10 and 20 µL/mL the oil was able to cause morphological changes in A. flavus as decreased conidiation, leakage of cytoplasm, loss of pigmentation and disrupted cell structure suggesting fungal wall degeneration. These findings showed the interesting anti-Aspergillus property of H. suaveolens leaves essential oil supporting its possible rational use as alternative source of new antifungal compounds to be applied in the aspergillosis treatment.

In this study we report the first isolation of VanA-type vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis strains from two different patients hospitalized in the same intensive care unit at the hospital of Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Influence of iron-depletion on twitching motility and quorum sensing (QS) system in P. aeruginosa was evaluated. The results demonstrated iron-depletion can retard biofilm formation and increase the twitching motility and expression of QS-related genes, suggesting a potential interaction between twitching motility and QS system in P. aeruginosa biofilm formation.

This study evaluated the in vitro susceptibility of C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. tropicalis and C. krusei to photodynamic therapy (PDT) induced by Photogem® and light emitting diode (LED). Suspensions of each Candida strain were treated with three photosensitizer (PS) concentrations (10, 25 and 50 mg/L) and exposed to 18.0, 25.5 and 37.5 J/cm² LED light fluences (λ ~ 455 nm). Control suspensions were treated only with PS concentrations, only exposed to the LED (mais) light fluences or not exposed to LED light or PS. Sixteen experimental conditions were obtained and each condition was repeated three times. From each sample, serial dilutions were obtained and aliquots were plated on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. After incubation of plates (37 ºC for 48 hours), colonies were counted (cfu/mL) and the data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and the Tukey test (α=0.05). Complete killing of C. albicans was observed after 18.0 J/cm² in association with 50 mg/L of PS. C. dubliniensis were inactivated after 18.0 J/cm² using 25 mg/L of PS. The inactivation of C. tropicalis was observed after photosensitization with 25 mg/L and subsequent illumination at 25.5 J/cm². For C. krusei, none of the associations between PS and light resulted in complete killing of this species. PDT proved to be effective for the inactivation of C. albicans, C. dubliniensis and C. tropicalis. In addition, reduction in the viability of C. krusei was achieved with some of the PS and light associations.

A prospective analysis of active Human Cytomegalovirus infection (HCMV) was conducted on 33 pediatric renal or hematopoietic stem cell post-transplant patients. The HCMV-DNA positive samples were evaluated for the prevalence of different gB subtypes and their subsequent correlation with clinical signs. The surveillance of HCMV active infection was based on the monitoring of antigenemia (AGM) and on a nested polymerase chain reaction (N-PCR) for the detection of HCMV in th (mais) e patients studied. Using restriction analysis of the gB gene sequence by PCR-RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), different HCMV strains could be detected and classified in at least four HCMV genotypes. Thirty-three pediatric recipients of renal or bone marrow transplantation were monitored. Twenty out of thirty-three (60.6%) patients demonstrated active HCMV infection. gB1 and gB2 genotypes were more frequent in this population. In this study, we observed that gB2 had correlation with reactivation of HCMV infection and that patients with mixture of genotypes did not show any symptoms of HCMV disease. Future studies has been made to confirm this.