The nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from patients in Japan, was conducted by Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010. The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period from January and April 2010 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institutes using maximum 45 antibacterial agents. Susceptibility testing was evaluable with 954 strains (206 Staphylococcus aureus, 189 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 Streptococcus pyogenes, 182 Haemophilus influenzae, 74 Moraxella catarrhalis, 139 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 160 Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Ratio of methicillin-resistant S. aureus was as high as 50.5%, and those of penicillin-intermediate and-resistant S. pneumoniae were 1.1% and 0.0%, respectively. Among H. influenzae, 17.6% of them were found to be b-lactamase-non-producing ampicillin (ABPC)-intermediately resistant, 33.5% to be b-lactamase-non-producing ABPC-resistant and 11.0% to be b-lac-tamase-producing ABPC-resistant strains. Extended spectrum b-lactamase-producing K. pneumoniae and multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa with metallo b-lactamase were 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively. Continuous national surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of respiratory pathogens is crucial in order to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis.

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is a DNA/RNA-binding protein containing two consecutive RNA recognition motifs (RRM1 and RRM2) in tandem. Functional abnormality of TDP-43 has been proposed to cause neurodegeneration, but it remains obscure how the physiological functions of this protein are regulated. Here, we show distinct roles of RRM1 and RRM2 in the sequence-specific substrate recognition of TDP-43. RRM1 was found to bind a wide spectrum of ssDNA sequences, while no binding was observed between RRM2 and ssDNA. When two RRMs are fused in tandem as in native TDP-43, the fused construct almost exclusively binds ssDNA with a TG-repeat sequence. In contrast, such sequence-specificity was not observed in a simple mixture of RRM1 and RRM2. We thus propose that the spatial arrangement of multiple RRMs in DNA/RNA binding proteins provides steric effects on the substrate-binding site and thereby controls the specificity of its substrate nucleotide sequences.

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We report a case of disseminated infection due to Bipolaris spicifera in an immunocompetent male. Histopathological studies of lymph node, lung, and liver biopsy specimens showed a dark pigmented, granular fungal structure inside the granuloma. The disease was accompanied by the unusual feature of positive lupus anticoagulant in serum and low-density areas expanding along the portal vein in the liver. The disease responded to combination therapy with intravenous amphotericin B and voriconazole, but recurred during oral itraconazole. The fungal isolate from the lymph node was identified as Bipolaris spicifera on the basis of morphology and molecular biological data.

a b s t r a c tThe nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from patients in Japan, was conducted by Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010.The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period from January and April 2010 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institutes using maximum 45 antibacterial agents.Susceptibility testing was evaluable with 954 strains (206 Staphylococcus aureus, 189 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 Streptococcus pyogenes, 182 Haemophilus influenzae, 74 Moraxella catarrhalis, 139 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 160 Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Ratio of methicillin-resistant S. aureus was as high as 50.5%, and those of penicillin-intermediate and -resistant S. pneumoniae were 1.1% and 0.0%, respectively. Among H. influenzae, 17.6% of them were found to be b-lactamase-non-producing ampicillin (ABPC)-intermediately resistant, 33.5% to be b-lactamase-non-producing ABPC-resistant and 11.0% to be b-lactamase-producing ABPC-resistant strains. Extended spectrum b-lactamase-producing K. pneumoniae and multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa with metallo b-lactamase were 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively.Continuous national surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of respiratory pathogens is crucial in order to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis.