First described in 1885, Escherichia coli gradually achieved recognition as a cause of diarrhoea. Strains of E. coli which belonged to a limited number of O-serogroups and had been associated with outbreaks of diarrhoea in hospitalised children were designated 'enteropathogenic' E. coli (EPEC) to distinguish them from E. coli strains that cause other types of infection. The discovery that some ...

Diarrheal disease is still a major public health concern, as it considered an important cause of death in children under five years age. A few decades ago, the detection enteropathogenic E. coli was made by detecting O, H, and K antigens, mostly agglutination. The recent protocols recommend molecular methods for diagnosing EPEC, they can distinguish between typical atypical EPEC identifying pre...

Fecal samples from healthy children under 2 years of age living in Berlin, Germany (205 infants), and Melbourne, Australia (184 infants), were investigated for the presence of attaching and effacing (AE) Escherichia coli (AEEC) strains by screening for eae (intimin) genes. Twenty-seven AEEC strains were isolated from 14 children (7.6%) from Melbourne and from 12 children (5.9%) from Berlin. The...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), a leading cause of infantile diarrhea worldwide, includes 12 O serogroups expressing mainly flagellar antigens H2, H6 and H34. Other serotypes are known, but their role in diarrhea has not been firmly established (4). Typically, EPEC strains of these serotypes harbor a pathogenicity island, designated LEE (for locus of enterocyte effacement), that conta...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) bacteria are a diverse group of pathogens that cause moderate to severe diarrhea in young children in developing countries. EPEC isolates can be further subclassified as typical EPEC (tEPEC) isolates that contain the bundle-forming pilus (BFP) or as atypical EPEC (aEPEC) isolates that do not contain BFP. Comparative genomics studies have recently highlig...

In this paired case-control study of infants with diarrhea in São Paulo, we examined the association between HEp-2-adherent Escherichia coli strains and diarrhea. We tested isolates from stool specimens of infants with diarrhea and matched controls in an HEp-2 cell adherence assay; we then hybridized isolates with DNA probes and identified enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enteroaggregative E. c...

background and objectives: diarrhea is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, specially in developing countries. one of the most important causative agents of bacterial diarrhea is diarrheagenic escherichia coli (dec) which causes gastroenteritis and this group involving enterotoxigenic e. coli (etec), enteropathogenic e. coli (epec), enteroaggregative e. coli (eaec), enterohemoragic ...

Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 12, No. 8, August 2006 1299 9. Adu-Bobie J, Frankel G, Bain C, Gonçalves AG, Trabulsi LR, Douce G, et al. Detection of intimin alpha, beta, gamma, and delta, four intimin derivatives expressed by attaching and effacing microbial pathogens. J Clin Microbiol. 1998;36:662–8. 10. Carvalho VM, Gyles CL, Ziebell K, Ribeiro MA, Catão-Dias JL, Sinho...

UNLABELLED Translocation of effector proteins via a type III secretion system (T3SS) is a widespread infection strategy among Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Each pathogen translocates a particular set of effectors that subvert cell signaling in a way that suits its particular infection cycle. However, as effector unbalance might lead to cytotoxicity, the pathogens must employ mechanisms tha...

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and allele associations of locus of enterocyte effacement encoded esp and tir genes among 181 enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains (90 diarrhoea-associated and 91 controls) isolated from Peruvian children under 18 months of age. We analysed espA, espB, espD and tir alleles by PCR-RFLP. EPEC strains were isolated with higher freque...