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Topic Review
Staphylococcus aureus Internalization
Bacterial internalization is a strategy that non-intracellular microorganisms use to escape the host immune system and survive inside the human body.
  • 1.2K
  • 05 Jul 2021
Topic Review
The Importance of Bifidobacterial Colonisation
There are several parallel mechanisms by which early life microbiome acquisition may proceed, including early exposure to maternal vaginal and fecal microbiota, transmission of skin associated microbes, and ingestion of microorganisms present in breast milk. The crucial role of vertical transmission from the maternal microbial reservoir during vaginal delivery is supported by the shared microbial strains observed among mothers and their babies and the distinctly different gut microbiome composition of caesarean-section born infants. The healthy infant colon is often dominated by members of the keystone genus Bifidobacterium that have evolved complex genetic pathways to metabolize different glycans present in human milk. In exchange for these host-derived nutrients, bifidobacteria's saccharolytic activity results in an anaerobic and acidic gut environment that is protective against enteropathogenic infection. Interference with early-life microbiota acquisition and development could result in adverse health outcomes. Compromised microbiota development, often characterized by decreased abundance of Bifidobacterium species has been reported in infants delivered prematurely, delivered by caesarean section, early life antibiotic exposure and in the case of early life allergies. Various microbiome modulation strategies such as probiotic, prebiotics, synbiotics and postbiotics have been developed that are able to generate a bifidogenic shift and help to restore the microbiota development.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Oral Biofilm
Oral diseases are considered the most common noncommunicable diseases and are related to serious local and systemic disorders. Oral pathogens can grow and spread in the oral mucosae and frequently in biomaterials (e.g., dentures or prostheses) under polymicrobial biofilms, leading to several disorders such as dental caries and periodontal disease. Biofilms harbor a complex array of interacting microbes, increasingly unapproachable to antimicrobials and with dynamic processes key to disease pathogenicity, which partially explain the gradual loss of response towards conventional therapeutic regimens. New drugs (synthesized and natural) and other therapies that have revealed promising results for the treatment or control of these mixed biofilms are presented and discussed here.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 May 2021
Topic Review
Metabolism and Toxin Gene Regulation in Gram-Positive Bacteria
Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium tetani are Gram-positive, spore-forming, and anaerobic rod-shaped bacteria that produce the most potent toxins among bacterial, animal, and plant toxins. C. tetani synthesizes the tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT), which is responsible for an often fatal spastic paralysis in humans and animals, whereas C. botulinum produces botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), which induce severe flaccid paralysis in vertebrates. Although TeNT and BoNTs lead to opposite clinical symptoms, they use a similar molecular mechanism of action. Toxin synthesis, as with protein synthesis in general, is dependent on the metabolic activity of the bacteria.
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Jun 2022
Topic Review
MDR Pumps as Crossroads of Resistance
The development of new antibiotics is either very expensive or ineffective due to rapidly developing bacterial resistance. The need to develop alternative approaches to the treatment of bacterial infections, such as phage therapy, is beyond doubt. The cornerstone of bacterial defense against antibiotics are multidrug resistance (MDR) pumps, which are involved in antibiotic resistance, toxin export, biofilm, and persister cell formation. MDR pumps are the primary non-specific defense of bacteria against antibiotics, while drug target modification, drug inactivation, target switching, and target sequestration are the second, specific line of their defense. All bacteria have MDR pumps, and bacteriophages have evolved along with them and use the bacteria’s need for MDR pumps to bind and penetrate into bacterial cells. 
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Borreliaceae Diagnostics
The acceleration of climate change has been associated with an alarming increase in the prevalence and geographic range of tick-borne diseases (TBD), many of which have severe and long-lasting effects—particularly when treatment is delayed principally due to inadequate diagnostics and lack of physician suspicion. Moreover, there is a paucity of treatment options for many TBDs that are complicated by diagnostic limitations for correctly identifying the offending pathogens. 
  • 1.2K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Prokaryotic Amyloids in Interspecies Interactions
Amyloids are fibrillar protein aggregates with an ordered spatial structure called “cross-β”. While some amyloids are associated with development of approximately 50 incurable diseases of humans and animals, the others perform various crucial physiological functions. The greatest diversity of amyloids functions is identified within prokaryotic species where they, being the components of the biofilm matrix, function as adhesins, regulate the activity of toxins and virulence factors, and compose extracellular protein layers. Amyloid state is widely used by different pathogenic bacterial species in their interactions with eukaryotic organisms. These amyloids, being functional for bacteria that produce them, are associated with various bacterial infections in humans and animals. Thus, the repertoire of the disease-associated amyloids includes not only dozens of pathological amyloids of mammalian origin but also numerous microbial amyloids. Although the ability of symbiotic microorganisms to produce amyloids has recently been demonstrated, functional roles of prokaryotic amyloids in host–symbiont interactions as well as in the interspecies interactions within the prokaryotic communities remain poorly studied. Here, we summarize the current findings in the field of prokaryotic amyloids, classify different interspecies interactions where these amyloids are involved, and hypothesize about their real occurrence in nature as well as their roles in pathogenesis and symbiosis.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Abyssomicins
Abyssomicins represent a new family of polycyclic macrolactones. The first described compounds of the abyssomicin family were abyssomicin B, C, atrop-C, and D, produced by the marine actinomycete strain Verrucosispora maris AB-18-032, which was isolated from a sediment collected in the Sea of Japan. Among the described abyssomicins, only abyssomicin C and atrop-abyssomicin C show a high antibiotic activity against Gram-positive bacteria, including multi-resistant and vancomycin-resistant strains. The inhibitory activity is caused by a selective inhibition of the enzyme 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate synthase, which catalyzes the transformation of chorismate to para-aminobenzoic acid, an intermediate in the folic acid pathway.
  • 1.2K
  • 04 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Endophytic Microbiome and Plant Growth
Endophytic bacteria are plant-associated bacteria that live in the internal tissues of the plant without harming the host plant. 
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Fusarium in Clinical Practice
In recent years, human infections by Fusarium have been rising worldwide, mostly involving immunocompromised hosts. To understand this infection clinicians must recognize the intersecting points between the patient, the environment, and the relationship among all the elements that affect fusariosis in agriculture, and human and animal diseases.
  • 1.2K
  • 17 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Diagnosis of Invasive Mold Infections
Invasive mold infections are increasingly recognized in immunocompromised hosts. Current diagnostic techniques are limited by low sensitivity and prolonged turnaround times.
  • 1.2K
  • 01 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus
Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), or EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC/2012), is a novel positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus of the genus Betacoronavirus. Initially called novel coronavirus 2012 or simply novel coronavirus, it was first reported in 2012 after genome sequencing of a virus isolated from sputum samples from a person who fell ill in a 2012 outbreak of a new flu. As of July 2015, MERS-CoV cases have been reported in over 21 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Turkey, Oman, Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia (none were confirmed), Austria, the United Kingdom, South Korea, the United States, Mainland China, Thailand, and the Philippines. MERS-CoV is one of several viruses identified by WHO as a likely cause of a future epidemic. They list it for urgent research and development.
  • 1.2K
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Sporothrix and Sporotrichosis
Sporothrix belongs to the fungal class Ascomycota and the order Ophiostomatales. It is a genus formed by filamentous fungi found in soil, plants, and decaying organic matter and includes pathogenic species for both humans and animals as well as environmental members. 
  • 1.2K
  • 28 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Correlation between the Intestinal Microbiota and Food Allergy
Food allergy is a repeatable atopic disorder resulting from exposure to specific food allergens that can lead to life-threatening allergic reactions. Food allergens are digested and absorbed in the gut, mainly in the small intestine, which contains symbiotic microbiota. With the co-evolution of humans and microbiota, symbiotic microbes inevitably have a considerable impact on human health. The human intestinal microbiota, especially the ileum and colon, plays an important role in the intestinal mucosal immunity, by promoting local homeostatic interactions and regulating the immune response to food allergens in the peripheral mucosa 
  • 1.2K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Bluetongue Virus Egress
Bluetongue virus (BTV) is an arthropod-borne virus infecting livestock. Its frequent emergence in Europe and North America had caused significant agricultural and economic loss. BTV is also of scientific interest as a model to understand the mechanisms underlying non-enveloped virus release from mammalian and insect cells. The BTV particle, which is formed of a complex double-layered capsid, was first considered as a lytic virus that needs to lyse the infected cells for cell to cell transmission. In the last decade however, a more in-depth focus on the role of the non-structural proteins has led to several examples where BTV particles are also released through different budding mechanisms at the plasma membrane. It is now clear that the non-structural protein NS3 is the main driver of BTV release, via different interactions with both viral and cellular proteins of the cell sorting and exocytosis pathway. Here are presented the main mechanisms that lead to lytic or non-lytic BTV release.
  • 1.2K
  • 10 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Challenge of Antimicrobial Drug Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance is mushrooming as a silent pandemic. It is considered among the most common priority areas identified by both national and international agencies. The global development of multidrug-resistant strains now threatens public health care improvement by introducing antibiotics against infectious agents. 
  • 1.2K
  • 31 May 2021
Topic Review
A Structural Approach to Anti-Virulence
The anti-virulence strategy is designed to prevent bacterial virulence factors produced by pathogenic bacteria from initiating and sustaining an infection. 
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Gut-Brain Axis in IBD
The gut–brain axis is a bidirectional communication system driven by neural, hormonal, metabolic, immunological, and microbial signals. Signaling events from the gut can modulate brain function and recent evidence suggests that the gut–brain axis may play a pivotal role in linking gastrointestinal and neurological diseases. Accordingly, accumulating evidence has suggested a link between inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and neurodegenerative, as well as neuroinflammatory diseases.
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Biological Effects of Squalamine and Its Aminosterol Derivatives
Squalamine is a natural aminosterol that has been discovered in the tissues of the dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias). Studies have previously demonstrated that this promoter compound and its derivatives exhibit potent bactericidal activity against Gram-negative, Gram-positive bacteria, and multidrug-resistant bacteria. The antibacterial activity of squalamine was found to correlate with that of other antibiotics, such as colistin and polymyxins. Still, in the field of microbiology, evidence has shown that squalamine and its derivatives have antifungal activity, antiprotozoa effect against a limited list of protozoa, and could exhibit antiviral activity against both RNA- and DNA-enveloped viruses. Furthermore, squalamine and its derivatives have been identified as being antiangiogenic compounds in the case of several types of cancers and induce a potential positive effect in the case of other diseases such as experimental retinopathy and Parkinson’s disease.
  • 1.2K
  • 30 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Characterization of Bacterial Lon Protease
Proteases are the group of enzymes that carry out proteolysis in all forms of life and play an essential role in cell survival. By acting on specific functional proteins, proteases affect the transcriptional and post-translational pathways in a cell. Lon, FtsH, HslVU and the Clp family are among the ATP-dependent proteases responsible for intracellular proteolysis in bacteria. Also, in bacteria, Lon protease acts as a global regulator and governs an array of important functions such as DNA replication and repair, virulence factors, stress response and biofilm formation. 
  • 1.2K
  • 22 Feb 2023
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