Eugenol,citral, and hexanal,alone or in combination with heat,affect viability,biofilm formation,and swarming on Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli

Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains are pathogenic for humans and cause mild to severe illnesses. In this study, the antimicrobial effect of citral, eugenol, and hexanal in combination with heat shock (HS) was evaluated in terms of the growth, biofilm formation, swarming, and expression of virulence genes of STEC serotypes (O157:H7, O103, O111, and O26). Eugenol was the most effective compound against the growth of E. coli strains (MBC = 0.58 to 0.73 mg/mL), followed by citral (MBC = 0.86 to 1.26 mg/mL) and hexanal (MBC = 2.24 to 2.52 mg/mL). Biofilm formation and swarming motility have great variability between STEC strains. Natural compounds—alone or combined with HS—inhibited biofilm formation; however, swarming motility was induced by most treatments. The expression of the studied genes during biofilm formation and swarming under natural antimicrobials was affected but not in a uniform pattern. These treatments could be used to control contamination of STEC and inhibit biofilm formation.     

Molecular Epidemiology of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) Isolates of Hospitalized Children from Bolivia Reveal High Heterogeneity and Multidrug-Resistance

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an emerging pathogen frequently associated with acute diarrhea in children and travelers to endemic regions. EAEC was found the most prevalent bacterial diarrheal pathogen from hospitalized Bolivian children less than five years of age with acute diarrhea from 2007 to 2010. Here, we further characterized the epidemiology of EAEC infection, virulence genes, and antimicrobial susceptibility of EAEC isolated from 414 diarrheal and 74 non-diarrheal cases. EAEC isolates were collected and subjected to a PCR-based virulence gene screening of seven virulence genes and a phenotypic resistance test to nine different antimicrobials. Our results showed that atypical EAEC (a-EAEC, AggR-negative) was significantly associated with diarrhea (OR, 1.62, 95% CI, 1.25 to 2.09, p < 0.001) in contrast to typical EAEC (t-EAEC, AggR-positive). EAEC infection was most prevalent among children between 7–12 months of age. The number of cases exhibited a biannual cycle with a major peak during the transition from warm to cold (April–June). Both typical and a-EAEC infections were graded as equally severe; however, t-EAEC harbored more virulence genes. aap, irp2 and pic were the most prevalent genes. Surprisingly, we detected 60% and 52.6% of multidrug resistance (MDR) EAEC among diarrheal and non-diarrheal cases. Resistance to ampicillin, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines was most common, being the corresponding antibiotics, the ones that are frequently used in Bolivia. Our work is the first study that provides comprehensive information on the high heterogenicity of virulence genes in t-EAEC and a- EAEC and the large prevalence of MDR EAEC in Bolivia.     

Improvement of Aglycone π-Stacking Yields Nanomolar to Sub-nanomolar FimH Antagonists

Antimicrobial resistance has become a serious concern for the treatment of urinary tract infections. In this context, an anti-adhesive approach targeting FimH, a bacterial lectin enabling the attachment of E. coli to host cells, has attracted considerable interest. FimH can adopt a low/medium-affinity state in the absence and a high-affinity state in the presence of shear forces. Until recently, mostly the high-affinity state has been investigated, despite the fact that a therapeutic antagonist should bind predominantly to the low-affinity state. In this communication, we demonstrate that fluorination of biphenyl α-d -mannosides leads to compounds with perfect π–π stacking interactions with the tyrosine gate of FimH, yielding low nanomolar to sub-nanomolar K_D values for the low- and high-affinity states, respectively. The face-to-face alignment of the perfluorinated biphenyl group of FimH ligands and Tyr48 was confirmed by crystal structures as well as ¹H,¹⁵N-HSQC NMR analysis. Finally, fluorination improves pharmacokinetic parameters predictive for oral availability.     

改性石墨烯包覆光纤的马赫-曾德尔大肠杆菌传感器

针对日益严峻的食品安全问题,特别是食源性致病菌的快速检测,本文提出一种基于表面改性石墨烯粗锥型马赫-曾德尔干涉结构的光纤大肠杆菌传感器。首先,截取一根4 cm的实心光子晶体光纤,两端分别与两根单模光纤进行粗锥熔接,形成基于马赫-曾德尔干涉原理的传感结构;接着,制备一种表面改性石墨烯敏感材料,将它涂覆在实心光子晶体光纤的表面,使传感器对大肠杆菌溶液有较高的灵敏度;最后,将上述传感器置于水槽中,以此检测大肠杆菌溶液浓度。实验结果表明,在大肠杆菌溶液浓度为50~600 cfu/mL内,随着菌液的浓度增大,传感器的干涉光谱发生了明显的蓝移,灵敏度为3.43 pm/(cfu·mL^-1),菌液浓度与波长偏移的线性度为0.95649,检测限为67.18 cfu/mL,响应时间为15 s。该传感器成本低、体积小、响应时间快,适用于低浓度大肠杆菌浓度的快速检测。     

具有保护肠上皮细胞HT-29免受大肠杆菌和H2O2损伤潜力的植物乳杆菌的筛选

益生菌可在肠道定植从而发挥抗炎或抗氧化活性，有利于宿主肠道健康。本实验研究了从新疆传统发酵乳制品中分离得到的8?株植物乳杆菌对大肠杆菌侵袭和过氧化氢刺激肠上皮细胞HT-29的保护作用。结果表明：在8?株植物乳杆菌中，植物乳杆菌35具有最高的黏附能力。植物乳杆菌35可通过取代、竞争、排阻的方式抑制大肠杆菌对HT-29细胞的黏附，抑制率分别为42.60%、59.17%、60.19%。植物乳杆菌35及其多糖可抑制大肠杆菌刺激HT-29细胞产生白细胞介素-8；同时保护HT-29细胞免受过氧化氢的损伤，增加超氧化物歧化酶、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶活力水平并降低丙二醛含量。结论：植物乳杆菌35及其粗胞外多糖具有抑制大肠杆菌O157诱导的炎症性肠病的潜力。     

Effects of dietary inclusion of sunflower soap stocks on colour,oxidation and microbiological growth of meat from light fattening lambs

Thirty-two lambs were finished on a total mixed ration (TMR) pelleted alone (00SS) or including sunflower soap stock (SS): 15SS (15 g SS per kg TMR), 30SS (30 g SS per kg TMR) and 60SS (60 g SS per kg TMR). Lambs (8 per group) were slaughtered at 27 kg live weight. Colour evolution, lipid oxidation, microbial growth and detection of diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli were studied in meat samples. SS in the diet reduced meat lipid oxidation (P < 0.05), but had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on the cholesterol oxidation products. Meat from 60SS and control animals (00SS) revealed greater discoloration (P < 0.05) than 15SS. SS supplementation did not affect the microbiological populations, whereas high doses of SS seemed to increase the proliferation of diarrhoeagenic E. coli on day 14 (P < 0.10). These results suggest that the rate of SS inclusion in the diet of fattening lambs should not be above 15 g SS per kg TMR.     

不同长度金属结合肽对大肠杆菌吸附钯性能的影响

利用微生物吸附法回收铂族金属(PGMs)有较大的应用前景，然而利用基因工程手段改造微生物胞外金属结合基团，进而提升微生物的吸附量与特异性仍是一项挑战。本研究利用微生物表面展示技术，在大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli，简写为E. coli)BL21菌株外膜上展示了不同长度的金属结合肽(EC10、EC20、EC30)，并解析了其对钯(Pd(II))的吸附行为。结果表明，在E.coli BL21表面展示不同长度金属结合肽均能增强其对Pd(II)的吸附量。其中，表面展示了EC20的菌株(简写为E. coli EC20)吸附量最高，为144.25 mg/g，是未进行表面展示菌株的1.14倍；E. coli BL21和E. coli EC20均能够从含多种金属离子的工业废水中选择性吸附Pd(II)和Pt(IV)，两株菌对Pd(II)吸附率分别为96.2%和99.0%。以上研究表明利用表面展示技术增加微生物外膜金属结合基团是一种有效提升微生物吸附能力的手段。     

Production of 2,3-butanediol from diverse saccharides via fermentation

The present study aimed to evaluate the potential use of whey to produce 2,3-BD via the fermentation of lactose and its monosaccharides, glucose and galactose, in a synthetic culture medium (medium 9, M9) using a modified strain of Escherichia coli K12 MG1655 (E. coli JFR12) at a 0.1 L/L (10 vol%) inoculum ratio, 37 °C, atmospheric pressure, an initial pH 7.4, and 100 rpm for 72 h varying the saccharide concentration from 12.5, 25, and 50 g/L. The 2,3-BD yield was ∼80 % of the theoretical yield using 25 g/L of glucose and lactose, corresponding to 0.38 g/g saccharides at a fermentation time of 48 h (glucose) and 72 h (lactose). However, the 2,3-BD yield was halved (0.19 g/g galactose), fermenting 25 g/L of galactose at 48 h. Taking into account these results, two important conclusions were determined: i) E. coli JFR12 could transform galactose into 2,3-BD although its yield was half of the yield observed with glucose at 48 h; and ii) E. coli JFR12 was as efficient as other natural 2,3-BD producers such as Klebsiella species fermenting lactose. However, the E. coli strain has the advantage of being an innocuous strain. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other study presenting the production of 2,3-BD from galactose and lactose with a genetically modified E. coli strain.     

Magnetic polymeric nanoparticles functionalized by mannose‐rhodamine conjugate for detection of E. coli

Mannose‐rhodamine (Rh) conjugate (80% yield) was synthesized in a one‐pot reaction and immobilized onto magnetic polymeric nanoparticles (MPNP; 43% magnetic content) of poly(styrene/divinyl benzene/acrylic acid). The resulting nanoparticles contained MPNP as a substrate, mannose as an E. coli receptor and Rh as a fluorescent signaling unit. TEM imaging clearly demonstrated that multiple mannose‐Rh MPNPs could be captured by E. coli strain ORN178. The fluorescent signal from captured nanoparticles was emitted at 580 nm. These results indicate that mannose‐Rh MPNP offers a simple and rapid strategy for bacterial detection. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2014 , 131, 40012.     

壳聚糖在抗菌PP中的应用

通过热重分析、差示扫描量热法对壳聚糖的热稳定性进行了研究,考察了其在抗菌聚丙烯(PP)中应用的可行性。壳聚糖在氧气中起始分解温度为252.0℃,可满足加工PP时对耐热性能的要求。壳聚糖改性PP的流动性和力学性能变化不大,黄色指数增加。随着壳聚糖添加量的增加,抗菌率逐渐提高,当壳聚糖质量分数达3%时,抗菌PP对大肠杆菌和金黄葡萄球菌的杀菌率均可达99%。