BACKGROUND Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia with a vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2 µg/mL presents a high rate of therapeutic failure in response to vancomycin. In addition, polymorphism in accessory gene regulator (agr) is associated with vancomycin therapeutic effects. The association between agr polymorphism and vancomycin MICs was investiga...

The staphylococcal accessory gene regulatory (agr) operon is a well-characterised global regulatory element that is important in the control of virulence gene expression for Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen. Hence, accurate and sensitive measurement of Agr activity is central in understanding the virulence potential of Staphylococcus aureus, especially in the context of Agr dysfunc...

BACKGROUND Preoperative albumin-globulin ratio (AGR) reflects both malnutrition and systemic inflammation in cancer patients. In particular, systemic inflammation has been reported to contribute to tumor progression and poor oncological outcome in various malignancies. However, the prognostic value of preoperative AGR in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) has not been examined. METHODS W...

Astrocyte morphologies and heterogeneity were described in male African giant rats (AGR; Cricetomys gambianus, Waterhouse) across three age groups (five neonates, five juveniles, and five adults) using Silver impregnation method and immunohistochemistry against glial fibrillary acidic protein. Immunopositive cell signaling, cell size and population were least in neonates, followed by adults and...

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G exhibits immunotolerogenicity and is related to allograft acceptance. Qa-2 is the murine homolog of HLA-G; it has structure and functions similar to those of HLA-G. We investigated the dynamic expression of Qa-2 in skin allografts by immunohistochemistry and on peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry during the entire process of acute graft rejectio...

BACKGROUND Low serum albumin is predictive of poor survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We evaluated the ability of the pretreatment albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) to predict long-term mortality in patients with NPC. METHODS This retrospective study examined an unselected cohort of 694 patients with NPC who had documented pretreatment total serum protein and serum albumin levels (ALB). A...

materials and methods this definitive and cross-sectional study was conducted in tehran, iran. a total of 15 s. aureus isolates were collected from wound samples with sterile swabs and were identified by the conventional diagnostic tests. the antibiotic susceptibility pattern was performed according to the clinical and laboratory standards institute (clsi, 2012) protocol. the meca gene, staphyl...

The majority of infections with glycopeptide intermediate-level resistant Staphylococcus aureus (GISA) originate in biomedical devices, suggesting a possible increased ability of these strains to produce biofilm. Loss of function of the accessory gene regulator (agr) of S. aureus has been suggested to confer an enhanced ability to bind to polystyrene. We studied agr in GISA, hetero-GISA, and re...

Background. The pretreatment albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) has been reported to be a predictor of survival in several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of AGR in patients with natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL). Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the available serum biochemistry results for 331 NKTCL patients before treatment. AGR was calculate...