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TsT, Quantiferon-Tb Gold test and T-spoT.Tb test for detecting latent tuberculosis infection in patients with rheumatic disease prior to anti-Tnf therapy Introduction: Before starting tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α blocking agents, standard tests should be used for the diagnosis of tuberculosis infection. The specificity of traditional tuberculin skin test (TST) is low in immunosuppressed patients due to prior Bacille Calmette Guérin (BCG) vaccination, non-tuberculous mycobacteria infections, false positive and negative results. In this study, we aimed to compare TST and Interferon-Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) tests for detecting latent tuberculosis infection in patients with rheumatic disease planned to receive TNF-α blocking agents. Materials and Methods: One hundred and nine patients (45 male, 64 female) with the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n= 70) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) (n= 39) were included in the study. Age, sex, number of BCG scar, results of TST (using the Mantoux method), QuantiFERON-TB Gold test and T-SPOT.TB test were recorded for all patients. Correlation between the tests was assessed by Pearson correlation coefficient. results: The mean age of RA and AS patients were 50 ± 13 (19-78 years). The prevalence of latent tuberculosis was 43.1% for TST, 39.4% for QuantiFERON-TB Gold test and 13.8% for T-SPOT.TB test, compared with the evaluation using the composite criteria such as close contact with active tuberculosis infection and/or suspicious fibrotic/calcific lesions on chest X-Ray without active tuberculosis infection. There was a moderate correlation between BCG scar number and TST (p< 0.001, r= 0.495

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Acinetobacter baumannii çoklu antimikrobiyal direnç gösterebilen ve hastaneden kazanılmış enfeksiyonlarda önemi olanbir patojendir. Çoklu ilaca dirençli A. baumannii suşlarının tedavisinde karbapenemler seçenektir. Çalışmamızda, karbapenem dirençli A. baumannii suşlarında direnç mekanizmalarının ve moleküler epidemiyolojisinin araştırılması amaçlanmıştır.

Background: Daphnia (Brachiopoda, Cladocera) is a well-studied model organism providing unparalleled opportunity to test epigenetic regulation of predator avoidance mechanisms in aquatic ecosystems. The discovery of regulatory functions for microRNA molecules and recently described miRNA profiles of Daphnia make it an ideal system to probe for posttranslational regulatory mechanisms mediated by kairomone released by predatory fish. However, despite a number of studies that focused on mRNA transcript level differences, no miRNA studies associated with kairomone exposure have been reported. Results: Exposing D. magna to fish kairomone from birth to the first reproduction was found to result in the differential expression of the four miRNAs tested: miR-7, miR-34, miR-317, and miR-375. Normalized transcript levels for each miRNA were found to vary across the exposure period with no clear conserved pattern of expression despite functional target analyses by GO, COG and KEGG indicating that predicted miRNA target genes are likely involved in related biological activities. Analysis of six mRNA transcripts (Hsp70, Hsp90, actin, AKT, GYS and IGFR), identified in previous studies as kairomone-mediated genes in Daphnia magna, were also carried out. Similar to that obtained for miRNAs, the mRNA transcript levels showed varying degrees of temporal regulation across the exposure time course with the two heat shock transcripts exhibiting elevated levels at early and late time points of kairomone exposure while the AKT, GYS, and IGFR transcripts had an general decrease in expression during the first 96 hours. Conclusions: Differential mRNA expression data supports the premise of an ecological trade-off between the cost of general biological processes and that of survival under long-term kairomone stress. Transcript levels for the four miRNAs tested were found to vary across developmental time with kairomone exposure which suggests that they may have a role in regulating morphological, behavioral or physiological responses by altering target gene expression. These studies lay the foundation for future work aimed at linking miRNAs and their target transcripts to changes in the signaling events that govern Daphnia response to kairomone specific stress.

Çalışmamızda hem invazif hem de invazif olmayan izolatlar kullanılmış olmasına rağmen hastane kaynaklı MRSA (HK-MRSA) ve toplum kaynaklı (TK-MRSA) suşları arasında ayrım yapılamamıştır. İnvazif MRSA enfeksiyonlarındaki bu azalma, enfeksiyon kontrol prosedürlerindeki gelişmelere bağlı olabilir. Ancak, sadece invazif örneklerin değerlendirilmesi MRSA oranının saptanmasında yetersiz kalabilir. Cilt ve yumuşak doku enfeksiyonları gibi non-invazif enfeksiyonlara neden olan TK-MRSA suşlarının, artan öneminden dolayı, alınan önlemlerin S.aureus üzerinde ne kadar etkili olduğunun tam olarak anlaşılabilmesi için, hem invazif hem de non-invazif izolatları içeren, HK-MRSA ve TK-MRSA suşları arasında geniş çaplı epidemiyolojik çalışmalara ihtiyaç vardır.