Diagnosis of invasive pneumococcal disease is challenging. We compared Binax NOW pneumococcal urinary antigen test with blood pneumococcal PCR in healthy Malawian children with and without pneumococcal carriage, and we found a high false-positive rate with Binax NOW. Blood pneumococcal PCR positivity was 66/88 (75%) compared to 5/27 (18%) when nasopharyngeal swabbing was performed first compare...

The in vitro kinetics of muramic acid-alanine bond hydrolysis and pneumococcal purpura-producing principle generation by incubation of Streptococcus pneumoniae cell wall preparations with the bacterial autolysin N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase were similar. The generated purpura-producing principle preparation had a weight-average molecular weight of ca. 2.6 X 10(7) and possessed the glycan a...

Ceragenin CSA-13, a cationic steroid, is here reported to show a concentration-dependent bactericidal/bacteriolytic activity against pathogenic streptococci, including multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. The autolysis promoted by CSA-13 in pneumococcal cultures appears to be due to the triggering of the major S. pneumoniae autolysin LytA, an N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase. CSA-13 ...

Bacterial L-forms are cell wall-less forms of bacteria that usually grow with a conventional cell wall. Despite being important for research, L-forms are difficult to generate reproducibly and research in this area is challenging. Domínguez-Cuevas et al. (2011) report a method to rapidly, quantitatively and reproducibly generate populations of L-forms in Bacillus subtilis. Importantly, the meth...

Antibodies against the fibrinogen binding protein (Fbe) of Staphylococcus epidermidis significantly increased macrophage phagocytosis. Antibodies against autolysin E were opsonic but to a lesser extent. Antibodies against a novel, putatively surface-located antigen were unable to enhance phagocytosis. The severity of systemic infection of mice with S. epidermidis was reduced if the bacteria wer...

Pneumonia with bacteremia accounts for the majority (70%) of cases of invasive pneumococcal diseases. Laboratory characterization of pneumococci is routinely done by sensitivity to optochin. We identified an atypical presentation of optochin-resistant pneumococci in blood isolate of a patient with sepsis. Polymerase chain reaction for autolysin (lytA) and pneumolysin (ply) was positive in the b...

salivary  gland  tumors  accounts  for  less  than  1%  of  all  tumors.  minor  salivary  gland  tumors (msgts) are uncommon and make up about 10% of all salivary gland neoplasms. the clinical and histopathological distribution of these tumors vary geographically. a case of a 38 yr old man with a minor salivary gland mass at chin region isreported here. the tumor invaded into the anterior surf...