The mechanisms used by Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli to adhere to epithelial cells are incompletely understood. Two cosmids from an E. coli O157:H7 DNA library contain an adherence-conferring chromosomal gene encoding a protein similar to iron-regulated gene A (IrgA) of Vibrio cholerae (M. B. Goldberg, S. A. Boyko, J. R. Butterton, J. A. Stoebner, S. M. Payne, and S. B. Calderwood, Mol. Microbiol. 6:2407-2418, 1992). We have termed the product of this gene the IrgA homologue adhesin (Iha), which is encoded by iha. Iha is 67 kDa in E. coli O157:H7 and 78 kDa in laboratory E. coli and is structurally unlike other known adhesins. DNA adjacent to iha contains tellurite resistance loci and is conserved in structure in distantly related pathogenic E. coli, but it is absent from nontoxigenic E. coli O55:H7, sorbitol-fermenting Stx-producing E. coli O157:H؊, and laboratory E. coli. We have termed this region the tellurite resistance-and adherence-conferring island. We conclude that Iha is a novel bacterial adherence-conferring protein and is contained within an E. coli chromosomal island of conserved structure. Pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 has only recently acquired this island.Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing E. coli (STEC) strains cause diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and the hemolytic uremic syndrome. The mechanisms underlying the adherence of STEC to epithelial cells are only partly understood (35). The ability to adhere to epithelial cells is an important virulence trait, because adherence presumably enables enteric pathogens to deliver toxins efficiently to host organs, overcome peristaltic clearance, and gain access to hostderived nutrients.Intimin is the best-characterized E. coli O157:H7 adherence molecule. Encoded by eae, intimin mediates the attaching and effacing lesion caused by enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and many STEC serotypes (21) and is an important component of pathogenicity. However, cloned eae from EPEC and STEC do not confer the adherent phenotype upon laboratory E. coli (18,25,28). Moreover, though the cloned EPEC locus of enterocyte effacement, which includes eae, does confer the adherence phenotype on E. coli K-12 (27), the cloned E. coli O157:H7 locus of enterocyte effacement does not (12).We describe an E. coli O157:H7 gene that renders laboratory E. coli adherent to epithelial cells and explore evolutionary aspects of its acquisition.(These data were presented in part at the 3rd International Symposium and Workshop on Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Infections, Baltimore, Md., 22 to 26 June 1997.) MATERIALS AND METHODSBacteria. The bacteria analyzed in this study are described in Table 1. The bacteria were inoculated directly from frozen stock (in Luria-Bertani [LB] broth-15% glycerol, maintained at Ϫ70°C) into LB broth (26). The cultures were grown overnight under standardized conditions (37°C; 14 to 16 h; stationary cultures) for adherence assays and protein preparations. The bacteria were grown in a shaking incubator (37°C; 14 to 24 h) f...
Rotaviruses are an important cause of gastroenteritis in human infants. In vivo, rotavirus displays striking cell tropism with viral replication generally restricted to the villus tip enterocytes of the small intestine. We studied a panel of cell lines that vary significantly in their permissivity to rotavirus infection. L cells and HEp2 cells were relatively resistant to rotavirus infection compared with permissive MalO4 cells and HT29 cells. RNA transcription among the cell lines was proportional to antigen synthesis making a translational or posttranslational block an unlikely source of observed differences in susceptibility. All of the cell lines bound and internalized radiolabeled virus equally well, as measured by escape from surface protease treatment. Analysis of the escape of cell bound virus from neutralizing monoclonal antibody revealed that rotavirus did not immediately enter an eclipse phase in nonpermissive cells, but was internalized in an infectious form for several hours, possibly sequestered within endocytic vacuoles. L cells and HEp2 cells were as permissive as MalO4 and HT29 cells when rotavirus infection was mediated by transfection of single-or doubleshelled rotavirus particles with cationic liposomes (LipofectinTM). Rotavirus cell tropism in tissue culture cells is determined by the ability of infecting virions to traverse the plasma membrane of the cells into the cytoplasmic compartment. (J.
The National Laboratory Certification Program undertook an evaluation of the dynamics of external contamination of hair with cocaine (COC) while developing performance testing materials for Federal Drug-Free Workplace Programs. This characterization was necessary to develop performance materials that could evaluate the efficacy of hair testing industry's decontamination procedures. Hair locks (blonde to dark brown/black) from five different individuals were contaminated with cocaine HCl. Hair locks were then treated with a synthetic sweat solution and hygienic treatments to model real-life conditions. Hair locks were shampooed daily (Monday through Friday) for 10 weeks, and samples of the hair locks were analyzed for COC, benzoylecgonine (BE), cocaethylene (CE), and norcocaine (NCOC). Three commercial analytical laboratories analyzed samples under three protocols: no decontamination procedure, individual laboratory decontamination, or decontamination by an extended buffer procedure at RTI International. Results indicated substantial and persistent association of all four compounds with all hair types. Hair that was not decontaminated had significantly greater quantities of COC and BE than did hair that was decontaminated. The only hair samples below detection limits for all four compounds were those decontaminated 1 h after contamination. Additionally, BE/COC ratios increased significantly over the 10-week study (regardless of decontamination treatment). From 21 days postcontamination until the end of the study, the mean BE/COC ratio for all hair types exceeded 0.05, the proposed Federal Mandatory Guidelines requirement. The largest variability in results was observed for samples decontaminated by participant laboratories. This suggests that current laboratory decontamination strategies will increase variability of performance testing sample results. None of the decontamination strategies used in the study were effective at removing all contamination, and some of the contaminated hair in this study would have been reported as positive for cocaine use based on the proposed Federal Mandatory Guidelines.
The resistance of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, tetracycline, ticarcillin, tobramycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was examined, and resistant strains were characterized. All 56 isolates collected between 1984 and 1987 were susceptible to all antibiotics tested; 13 (7.4%) of 176 strains isolated between 1989 and 1991 were resistant to streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, and tetracycline. lambda-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis suggested that the 13 resistant strains belonged to nine different clones. The emerging resistance of E. coli O157:H7 to antibiotics could portend an increased prevalence of this pathogen in food animals that receive antibiotics. Antimicrobial resistance of E. coli O157:H7 could be useful as a rapid epidemiologic marker and as a way to select this pathogen from suspected vehicles of transmission, but this resistance could also complicate therapeutic trials with sulfa-containing antibiotics.
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