Cryptococcus neoformans is a major pathogen of humans throughout the world. Using commercial monoclonal antibodies to capsular epitopes, strains of C. neoformans manifest five serotypes: A, B, C, D and AD. Previous studies demonstrated significant divergence among serotypes A, B, C and D, which are typically haploid. In contrast, most strains of serotype AD are diploid or aneuploid and result f...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates representing the serotypes O165:H25, O26:H11/H32, and O156:H25 were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectra of whole cells, a procedure also known as intact cell mass spectrometry (ICMS or IC-MALDI MS) or MALDI-typing. We demonstrate that within the given species the three serotypes can be well discrimin...

A prospective laboratory-based multicenter study that collected all adult invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) episodes from 6 Spanish hospitals before (2008-2009) and after (2012-2013). The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) licensure was conducted in order to analyze the impact of PCV13 introduction for children on adult IPD. A total of 1558 IPD episodes were detected. The incide...

We investigated antibody responses against pneumococci of serotypes 6B, 14, and 23F in 56 children and adolescents with perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who were vaccinated with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Overall immune responses differed greatly between serotypes. Correlation coefficients between immunoglobulin G (IgG) measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage, serotype distribution, and penicillin resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children ≤ 6 years of age in Ghana. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out on a cluster-randomized sample of children ≤ 6 years of age attending nurseries and kindergartens in Accra and Tamale, Ghana. Basic ...

INTRODUCTION In the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, enteroviruses are a significant cause of infection presenting in endemic or epidemic forms. The present study aimed to use molecular methods to identify enterovirus serotypes in clinical specimens to determine their circulation in the community. METHODOLOGY A total of 320 clinical specimens were collected between January 2009 and December 2...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains possessing genes for enterohemolysin (ehxA) and/or intimin (eae), referred to here as complex STEC (cSTEC), are more commonly recovered from the feces of humans with hemolytic uremic syndrome and hemorrhagic colitis than STEC strains that do not possess these accessory virulence genes. Ruminants, particularly cattle and sheep, are recognized...

Serotyping is widely used for typing Salmonella during surveillance, and depends on determining the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-antigen and the flagellar protein (H-antigens) components. As the O-antigen is highly variable, and structurally unique to each serotype, we investigated the binding affinities of LPS from Salmonella serotypes of O4 serogroup with specific anti-antigen serum via immunob...

BACKGROUND The Streptococcus pneumoniae polysaccharide capsule may be related to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) course. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study with nationally representative surveillance data from 1075 hospitalized patients with IPD from the Netherlands from 1 June 2004 through 31 May 2006 in the prevaccination era. Serotypes were grouped according to invasive ...

Conjugate vaccines protect vaccinated individuals against both disease from and nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Protection is specific to the capsular serotype(s) included in the vaccine. This specificity has raised concern that vaccination against particular ("targeted") serotypes may cause an increase in carriage of (and diseases attributable to...