Microbial monitoring of the hospital environment: why and how?

Galvin, Sandra; Dolan, Anthony; Cahill, Orla; Daniels, Stephen; Humphreys, Hilary

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2012.06.015

Cited by 97 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…The cultured microorganisms represent only a small fraction of natural microbial communities, hence the microbial diversity Hospital environment also represents a new ecological niche for clinically important antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. Along with identiication through the ampliication of conserved genomic sequences, PCR can also be used to detect antimicrobial resistance or virulence genes [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method does not provide a clear distinction between viable and non-viable organisms, so may not be an accurate relection of the microbial load present on a surface [34]. On the other hand, accurate determination of the total bacterial load is important in many microbiological applications but cannot be obtained with traditional bacterial cultivation methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PCR Technique for the Microbial Analysis of Inanimate Hospital Environment

Rozman¹,

Turk²

2016

Polymerase Chain Reaction for Biomedical Applications

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Discipline of molecular ecology and molecular techniques such as polymerase chain reaction PCR ofers a possibility to study and reveal the microbial diversity in environmental setings with complicated mixed communities, non-culturable organisms, interfering contaminants and low levels of target DNA. Hospital environment represents a new ecological niche for clinically important nosocomial pathogens and antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, which have been commonly found on various hospital surfaces. Accurate characterization of microbial communities depends on several factors, starting with sample collection and conditional enrichment step. In the step of nucleic acid isolation and puriication, the DNA, as a dominant signature molecule, is extracted followed by removing co-extracted impurities. PCR target sequences are often 16S rDNA gene, functional gene probes or species-speciic probes, depending on the objective of the study. Furthermore, properly prepared PCR amplicons can serve as a basis for characterizing microbial community. The PCR technique is a powerful tool for the analysis of microbial diversity of environmental ecosystems. In a hospital environment, advantages of detecting pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria need to be pointed out.Keywords: microorganisms, hospital environment, inanimate surfaces, DNA extraction, PCR . IntroductionCharacteristics of the hospital environments are very speciic where inanimate environment can be colonized with a wide range of microorganisms [1,2]. The cultured microorganisms represent only a small fraction of natural microbial communities, hence the microbial diversity in terms of species richness and species abundance is grossly underestimated [3]. Therefore, the discipline of molecular ecology and molecular techniques such as polymerase chain reaction PCR ofers a possibility to study and reveal the real-microbial population complexity and a possibility to overcome limitations of culture-based approaches. Due to the power of the PCR to amplify small amounts of DNA, organisms occurring in small numbers in an environment are now detectable [3]. Special challenges in environmental setings are complicated mixed communities, interfering contaminants and low levels of target DNA [4]. The speciics of environmental samples are low to medium concentration of target cells, low sample homogeneity and high degree of PCR inhibition [5].Many types of pathogenic microorganisms have been found on various common hospital surfaces. Most common nosocomial bacteria present and detected on inanimate hospital surfaces, using speciic marker genes, are presented in

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

PCR Technique for the Microbial Analysis of Inanimate Hospital Environment

Rozman¹,

Turk²

2016

Polymerase Chain Reaction for Biomedical Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…By utilising the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), it is possible to amplify relatively small numbers of DNA fragments to yield a large copy number of the sequence (Galvin et al, 2012). The technique allows for the selective amplification of a "target" DNA sequence.…”

Section: Methodologies Used In This Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, there are drawbacks to using PCR; this may include selective amplification, over amplification of the target and amplification of non-viable DNA (Galvin et al 2012).…”

Section: Methodologies Used In This Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%