Hospital-acquired infections caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are increasing. The resistance of VRE to multiple antibiotics makes them clinically challenging. There are at least six phenotypes of VRE, including VanA, VanB, VanC, VanD, VanE, and VanG (2, 8). These phenotypes correspond with the genotypes vanA, vanB, vanC, vanD, vanE, and vanG. VanA and VanB phenotypes are common ...

Enterococcus faecalis harbors a virulence-associated surface protein encoded by the esp gene. This gene has been shown to be part of a 150-kb putative pathogenicity island. A gene similar to esp has recently been found in Enterococcus faecium isolates recovered from hospitalized patients. In the present study we analyzed the polymorphism in the esp gene of E. faecium, and we investigated the as...

Enterococcus faecium, traditionally considered a harmless gut commensal, is emerging as an important nosocomial pathogen showing increasing rates of multidrug resistance. We report the draft genome sequence of E. faecium strain LMG 8148, isolated in 1968 from a human in Gothenburg, Sweden. The draft genome has a total length of 2,697,490 bp, a GC-content of 38.3 %, and 2,402 predicted protein-c...

Beta-lactam antibiotics sensitize Enterococcus faecium to killing by endogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) of the innate immune system and daptomycin through mechanisms yet to be elucidated. It has been speculated that beta-lactam inactivation of select E. faecium penicillin binding proteins (PBPs) may play a pivotal role in this sensitization process. To characterize the specific PBP inacti...

A bacteriocin-like substance (BLS) producing Enterococcus faecium CE5-1 was isolated from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of Thai indigenous chickens. Investigations of its probiotic potential were carried out. The competition between the BLS probiotic strain and antibiotic-resistant enterococci was also studied. Ent. faecium CE5-1 exhibited a good tolerance to pH 3.0 after 2 h and in 7% fresh...

This study investigated the inhibitory effect of probiotic Enterococcus faecium WB2000 on biofilm formation by cariogenic streptococci. The ability of E. faecium WB2000 and JCM5804 and Enterococcus faecalis JCM5803 to inhibit biofilm formation by seven laboratory oral streptococcal strains and 13 clinical mutans streptococcal strains was assayed. The Enterococcal strains inhibited biofilm forma...

Enterococcus faecium recently evolved from a generally avirulent commensal into a multidrug-resistant health care-associated pathogen causing difficult-to-treat infections, but little is known about the factors responsible for this change. We previously showed that some E. faecium strains express a cell wall-anchored collagen adhesin, Acm. Here we analyzed 90 E. faecium isolates (99% acm(+)) an...

Background: Enterococci spp. bacteria especially Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium have the ability to acquire antibiotic-resistance pattern and causing life-threatening hospital-acquired infections. So, the aim of this study was to count and isolate of E. faecalis and E. faecium from milk and dairy desserts consumed in Assiut city, Egypt. Methods: A total of 100 raw milk, ice cream, mehall...

UNLABELLED The microbiota of the mammalian gastrointestinal tract is a complex ecosystem of bacterial communities that continuously interact with the mucosal immune system. In a healthy host, the mucosal immune system maintains homeostasis in the intestine and prevents invasion of pathogenic bacteria, a phenomenon termed colonization resistance. Antibiotics create dysbiosis of microbiota, there...

background: enterococci are members of the normal gut flora and released into the environment via sewage outlets, where they can survive for long times. infections with high-level gentamicin resistant (hlgr) enterococci are emerg­ing worldwide. hlgr enterococci have developed a resistance to most antibiotics commonly used for enterococcal in­fec­tions therefore; treatment of infections caused b...