The majority of infections with glycopeptide intermediate-level resistant Staphylococcus aureus (GISA) originate in biomedical devices, suggesting a possible increased ability of these strains to produce biofilm. Loss of function of the accessory gene regulator (agr) of S. aureus has been suggested to confer an enhanced ability to bind to polystyrene. We studied agr in GISA, hetero-GISA, and re...

Background. The pretreatment albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) has been reported to be a predictor of survival in several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of AGR in patients with natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL). Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the available serum biochemistry results for 331 NKTCL patients before treatment. AGR was calculate...

The pretreatment albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) has been used as a prognostic factor in various cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of AGR in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC).We tested albumin and total proteins in plasma samples from 276 SCLC patients from our cancer center between January 2003 and December 2006. The AGR was defined by the formula: albumin/(total proteins-alb...

UNLABELLED Staphylococcus aureus is a human commensal that at times turns into a serious bacterial pathogen causing life-threatening infections. For the delicate control of virulence, S. aureus employs the agr quorum-sensing system that, via the intracellular effector molecule RNAIII, regulates virulence gene expression. We demonstrate that the presence of the agr locus imposes a fitness cost o...

Staphylococcus aureus organisms vary in the function of the staphylococcal virulence regulator gene agr. To test for a relationship between agr and transmission in S. aureus, we determined the prevalence and genetic basis of agr dysfunction among nosocomial methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in an area of MRSA endemicity. Identical inactivating agr mutations were not detected in epidemiolog...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare the biofilm formation and the prevalence of biofilm-associated genes between the isolates of methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) Staphylococcus aureus. METHODS In total, 209 S. aureus isolates were collected. The antibiotic susceptibility test was conducted using nine antibiotics according to the guidelines of Clinica...

OBJECTIVES Recently, an association between the accessory gene regulator (agr) in Staphylococcus aureus and the development of vancomycin resistance secondary to suboptimal exposure has been demonstrated. We investigated the relationship of vancomycin with and without gentamicin or rifampicin, and daptomycin in the development of resistance in agr groups I and II. METHODS S. aureus belonging ...

We describe the genetic and microbiological characteristics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream isolates with agr dysfunction from a tertiary-care hospital in Korea. Of these, ST5-SCCmec type II-agr group II MRSA isolates, which are known to be prevalent in hospital-acquired infections in Korea, were the most abundant, because of the clonal spread of a specific agr...

Transport in disordered armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGR) with long-range correlation between quantum wire contacts is investigated by a transfer matrix combined with Landauer's formula. The metal-insulator transition is induced by disorder in neutral AGR. Therein, the conductance is one conductance quantum for the metallic phase and exponentially decays otherwise, when the length of AGR app...

Abstract A total of 46 Staphylococcus aureus isolates from fish and ground beef were tested for the agr types, icaABCD genes, biofilm formation at 12, 25 37 °C by microtiter plate MTT assays. All positive icaABD while 97.8% icaC . produced biofilms °C, but 93.5% them also producers 12 °C. There was no significant difference in between using crystal violet assay ( P > 0.05). However, statisti...