Although Brucella endocarditis is a rare complication of human brucellosis, it is the main cause of the mortality in this disease. Traditionally, the therapeutic approach to endocarditis caused by Brucella species requires a combination of antimicrobial therapy and valve replacement surgery. In the literature, only a few cases of mitral prosthetic valve endocarditis caused by Brucella species h...

During investigations to ascertain the mechanism involved in the differential bacteriostatic effect of dyes on the growth of the three species of Brucella, it became apparent that relevant data could be obtained by studying the comparative metabolism of glutamic acid by the three species. This was initiated using resting cell techniques and determining the metabolites by paper chromatography. T...

Brucella suis, Brucella abortus, and Brucella melitensis were shown by microscopic and cultural procedures to multiply extensively within normal rat, mouse, and guinea pig monocytes maintained in vitro in cell cultures for 3 days. Intracellular growth of brucellae had no observable toxic effects on most monocytes, although many of the cells became completely engorged with brucellae within 3 day...

INTRODUCTION Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonosis and a significant cause of loss of health in humans and animals. Traditionally, classic diagnosis is carried out by isolation of Brucella, which is time-consuming, technically challenging and potentially dangerous. The aim of this study was to expand a molecular test that would be used for the develop detection of Brucella in a single reaction wi...

Brucella species are facultative intracellular bacterial pathogens that cause brucellosis, a global zoonosis of profound importance. Although recent studies have demonstrated that Brucella spp. replicate within an intracellular compartment that contains endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident proteins, the molecular mechanisms by which the pathogen secures this replicative niche remain obscure. Her...

Brucella spp. are facultative intracellular parasites of various mammals, including humans, typically infecting lymphoid as well as reproductive organs. We have investigated how B. suis and B. melitensis enter human monocytes and in which compartment they survive. Peripheral blood monocytes readily internalized nonopsonized brucellae and killed most of them within 12 to 18 h. The presence of Br...

We characterize Brucella infection in a wild southern sea otter ( Enhydra lutris nereis) with osteolytic lesions similar to those reported in other marine mammals and humans. This otter stranded twice along the central California coast, US over a 1-yr period and was handled extensively at two wildlife rehabilitation facilities, undergoing multiple surgeries and months of postsurgical care. Ulti...

DNA heterogeneity among members of the genus Brucella was demonstrated with the arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). Simple, reproducible genomic fingerprints from DNA of 25 different Brucella strains were generated with five arbitrarily chosen primers, alone and in pairs, with the PCR. Reaction conditions were optimized for each primer. Several DNA segments were amplified in ...

Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases in India. Growth of Brucella is slow and needs meticulous biochemical tests and antisera for confirmation of the isolates. In the present study modified cold ZN staining was tried on the broth cultures for early presumptive identification of Brucella growth. Blood cultures were attempted in 22 seropositive patients. In the five blood cultu...

Brucella spp. is the causative agent of brucellosis (Malta fever), which is the most widespread zoonosis worldwide. The pathogen is capable of establishing persistent infections in humans which are extremely difficult to eradicate even with antibiotic therapy. Moreover, Brucella is considered as a potential bioterrorism agent. Histidinol dehydrogenase (HDH, EC 1.1.1.23) has been shown to be ess...