Staphylococcus aureus causes hospital outbreaks and becomes multi-drug resistant, although how bacteria adapt to environments remains unknown. We collected S. isolates during an outbreak in a hospital. performed the whole-genome sequence found most are same clone’s descendants. Though original clone showed functional accessory gene regulator (Agr) that enables various toxin productions upon sen...

BACKGROUND Prior studies showed a relationship between serum albumin and the albumin to globulin ratio with different types of cancer. We aimed to evaluate the predictive value of the albumin-globulin ratio (AGR) for survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study included 240 lung adenocarcinoma patients. Biochemical parameters before chemotherap...

We examined the bacterial aerobic nasal flora of 216 healthy volunteers to identify potential competitive interactions among different species, with special emphasis on the influence of staphylococcal agr alleles. The Staphylococcus aureus colonization rate correlated negatively with the rate of colonization by Corynebacterium spp. and non-aureus staphylococci, especially S. epidermidis, sugges...

Mutations in the staphylococcal virulence regulator gene agr frequently occur during Staphylococcus aureus infection. Whether agr-defective strains are fit for colonization, an important prerequisite for infection, is unknown. Screening by means of assays to detect delta-hemolysin activity and agr autoinducing peptide production indicated that 15 ( approximately 9%) of 160 healthy human subject...

The agr system of Staphylococcus aureus promotes invasion of host tissues, and as expected, agents that block agr quorum sensing have anti-infective properties. Paradoxically, agr-defective mutants are frequently recovered from patients, especially those persistently infected with S. aureus We found that an agr deficiency increased survival of cultured bacteria during severe stress, such as tre...

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus produces numerous virulence factors but little is known about their in vivo regulation during an infection. METHODS The production of capsule and α-toxin, and the expression of their respective genes, cap5 and hla, were analyzed by comparing CYL11481 (derivative of Newman) and its isogenic regulatory mutants in vitro. The temporal expression of cap5 and hla an...

OBJECTIVE Impaired immunonutritional status has disadvantageous effects on outcomes for cancer patients. Preoperative albumin-to-globulin ratio (AGR) and the prognostic nutrition index (PNI) have been used as prognostic factors in various cancers. We aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of the AGR and PNI in glioblastoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective analysis involved 166 p...

Objective(s): Infections by Staphylococcus aureus remain an important health problem. The aims were to detect mecA, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), accessory gene regulator (agr), and integrons in S. aureus and to investigate the relationship of agr types with antibiotic resistance of isolates.  Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 70 S. aureus isolates w...

Staphylococcus aureus causes infections ranging from superficial wound infections to life-threatening systemic infections. Essential for S. aureus pathogenicity are a number of cell-wall-associated and secreted proteins that are controlled by a complex regulatory network involving the quorum-sensing agr locus and a large set of transcription factors belonging to the Sar family. Recently, we rev...

Copper is an important cofactor for many enzymes; however, high levels of copper are toxic. Therefore, bacteria must ensure there is sufficient copper for use as a cofactor but, more importantly, must limit free intracellular levels to prevent toxicity. In this study, we have used DNA microarray to identify Staphylococcus aureus copper-responsive genes. Transcriptional profiling of S. aureus SH...