<abstract> <p>Over decades, sulfur has been employed for treatment of many dermatological diseases, several skin and soft tissue, and <italic>Staphylococcus</italic> infections. Because of its abuse, resistant bacterial strains have emerged. Nanotechnology has presented a new horizon to overcome abundant problems including drug resistance. Nano-sized sulfur has proven to retain bactericidal activity. Consequently, the specific aims of this study are exclusively directed to produce various sulfur nanoparticles formulations with control of particle size and morphology and investigate the antibacterial activity response specifically classified by the category of responses of different formulations, for the treatment of acne vulgaris resistant to conventional antibiotics. In this study, we produced uncoated sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs), sulfur nano-composite with chitosan (CS-SNPs), and sulfur nanoparticles coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG-SNPs) and evaluate their bactericidal impact against <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic> and <italic>Staphylococcus epidermidis</italic> isolated from 173 patients clinically diagnosed acne vulgaris. Accompanied with molecular investigations of <italic>erm</italic>B and <italic>mec</italic>A resistance genes distribution among the isolates. Sulfur nanoparticles were synthesized using acid precipitation method and were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersed x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Moreover, agar diffusion and broth micro-dilution methods were applied to determine their antibacterial activity and their minimum inhibitory concentration. PCR analysis for virulence factors detection. Results: TEM analysis showed particle size of SNPs (11.7 nm), PEG-SNPs (27 nm) and CS-SNPs (33 nm). Significant antibacterial activity from nanoparticles formulations in 100% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) with inhibition zone 30 mm and MIC at 5.5 µg/mL. Furthermore, the prevalence of <italic>mecA</italic> gene was the most abundant among the isolates while <italic>ermB</italic> gene was infrequent. Conclusions: sulfur nanoparticles preparations are an effective treatment for most <italic>Staphylococcus</italic> bacteria causing acne vulgaris harboring multi-drug resistance virulence factors.</p> </abstract>

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a lethal viral disease transmitted by contact with infected people and animals. Ebola infection represents a worldwide health threat causing enormous mortality rates and fatal epidemics. Major concern is pilgrimage seasons with possible transmission to Middle East populations. In this review, we aim to shed light on Ebola hemorrhagic fever as regard: virology, transmission, biology, pathogenesis, clinical picture, and complications to get the best results for prevention and management. We also aim to guide future research to new therapeutic perspectives to precise targets. Our methodology was to review the literature extensively to make an overall view of the biology of Ebola virus infection, its serious health effects and possible therapeutic benefits using currently available remedies and future perspectives. Key findings in Ebola patients are fever, hepatic impairment, hepatocellular necrosis, lymphopenia (for T-lymphocyte and natural killer cells) with lymphocyte apoptosis, hemorrhagic manifestations, and complications. Pathogenesis in Ebola infection includes oxidative stress, immune suppression of both cell-mediated and humoral immunities, hepatic and adrenal impairment and failure, hemorrhagic fever, activation of deleterious inflammatory pathways, for example, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, and factor of apoptotic signal death receptor pathways causing lymphocyte depletion. Several inflammatory mediators and cytokines are involved in pathogenesis, for example, interleukin-2, 6, 8, and 10 and others. In conclusion, Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a serious fatal viral infection that can be prevented using strict health measures and can be treated to some extent using some currently available remedies. Newer treatment lines, for example, prophetic medicine remedies as nigella sativa may be promising.

Toll-like receptors (TLR) play an eminent role in the regulation of immune responses to invading pathogens during sepsis. TLR genetic variants might influence individual susceptibility to developing sepsis. The current study aimed to investigate the association of genetic polymorphisms of the TLR2 and TLR4 with the risk of developing sepsis with both a pilot study and in silico tools. Different in silico tools were used to predict the impact of our SNPs on protein structure, stability, and function. Furthermore, in our prospective study, all patients matching the inclusion criteria in the intensive care units (ICU) were included and followed up, and DNA samples were genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology. There was a significant association between TLR2 Arg753Gln polymorphisms and sepsis under the over-dominant model (p = 0.043). In contrast, we did not find a significant difference with the TLR4 Asp299Gly polymorphism with sepsis. However, there was a significant association between TLR4 Asp299Gly polymorphisms and Acinetobacter baumannii infection which is quite a virulent organism in ICU (p = 0.001) and post-surgical cohorts (p = 0.033). Our results conclude that the TLR2 genotype may be a risk factor for sepsis in adult patients.

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Virulence factors and antifungal resistance features of Candida albicans considering a growing health problem worldwide. This study made to show the expression of both virulence and azole resistance genes at 100 clinical isolates of Candida we used a model of infection of human vaginal epithelial cells with C. albicans strains isolated from Egyptian women with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). The detection and expression of virulence genes and azole resistance genes were performed using PCR technic. All isolates were susceptible to ketoconazole (KTC), 3 isolates (3%) only were resist to both nystatin (NY) and amphotericin B (AMB) ,all isolates found resist to griseofulvin (AGF) 10 µg, eighty five isolates (85%)were resist to flucytosine (AFY), four isolates (4%)were resist to miconazole (MCL), seventy one isolates (71%) were resist to voriconazole (VO), thirty three isolates (33 %) were resist to itraconazole (ITC), forty one isolates and twenty seven isolates (27%)were resist to 100 µg fluconazole (flu). All isolated strains expressed SAP4-SAP6 (100%) and almost all expressed SAP1-SAP3 (91%) In this study, fluconazole resistance was identified in 27% of the strains, whereas (27%) had positive ERG11 gene, (27%) were positive MDR1 gene and (14%) were positive CDR1 gene. The results indicate that the strains that infect Egyptian patients suffering from VVC are highly virulent and virtually all are insensitive to fluconazole.