This was a large double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which the probiotic underwent longitudinal quality control. We found under these conditions that L. acidophilus was not beneficial in treating children with acute watery diarrhea.
HighlightsShigella sonnei is an emergent and highly drug resistant diarrheal pathogen.The half-life of maternal S. sonnei IgG in infants is 43 days.Maternal titer, antibody transfer ratio and gestational age influence birth titer.Incidence of seroconversion in infants in southern Vietnam is 4/100 infant years.Children should be vaccinated after 5 months of age if a candidate is licensed.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the ten major threats to global health. Advances in technology, including whole-genome sequencing, have provided new insights into the origin and mechanisms of AMR. However, our understanding of the short-term impact of antimicrobial pressure and resistance on the physiology of bacterial populations is limited. We aimed to investigate morphological and physiological responses of clinical isolates of E. coli under short-term exposure to key antimicrobials. We performed whole-genome sequencing on twenty-seven E. coli isolates isolated from children with sepsis to evaluate their AMR gene content. We assessed their antimicrobial susceptibility profile and measured their growth dynamics and morphological characteristics under exposure to varying concentrations of ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, tetracycline, gentamicin, and azithromycin. AMR was common, with all organisms resistant to at least one antimicrobial; a total of 81.5% were multi-drug-resistant (MDR). We observed an association between resistance profile and morphological characteristics of the E. coli over a three-hour exposure to antimicrobials. Growth dynamics experiments demonstrated that resistance to tetracycline promoted the growth of E. coli under antimicrobial-free conditions, while resistance to the other antimicrobials incurred a fitness cost. Notably, antimicrobial exposure heterogeneously suppressed bacterial growth, but sub-MIC concentrations of azithromycin increased the maximum growth rate of the clinical isolates. Our results outline complex interactions between organism and antimicrobials and raise clinical concerns regarding exposure of sub-MIC concentrations of specific antimicrobials.
BackgroundGenomic characterization of rotavirus (RoV) has not been adopted at large-scale due to the complexity of obtaining sequences for all 11 segments, particularly when feces are used as starting material.MethodsTo overcome these limitations, we developed a novel RoV capture and genome sequencing method combining commercial enzyme immunoassay plates and a set of routinely used reagents.ResultsOur approach had a 100% success rate, producing >90% genome coverage for diverse RoV present in fecal samples (Ct < 30).ConclusionsThis method provides a novel, reproducible and comparatively simple approach for genomic RoV characterization and could be scaled-up for use in global RoV surveillance systems.Trial registration (prospectively registered)Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN88101063. Date of registration: 14/06/2012Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-017-3714-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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