T Serotyping and Genomic Profile of Erythromycin- Resistant or -SensitiveStreptococcus pyogenesIsolated in Campania Region, Italy

Streptococcus pyogenes causes mild infections, such as pharyngitis, and severe infections, such as necrotizing fascitis. In recent years, erythromycin-resistant strains of S. pyogenes have been reported in many countries. In some areas of Italy, increased rates of erythromycin resistance were first observed in the mid-1990s. Here, we report epidemiological T serotyping, invasiveness, erythromycin resistance, and PFGE patterns of 99 S. pyogenes strains isolated at the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology of the Second University of Naples, Italy. Regarding T serotyping, 26 of 99 strains were W+, 16 strains were U+, 16 were X+, and 14 were agglutinated by anti T serum. A low percentage revealed Y+. Twelve strains were not T serotyped. PFGE patterns showed species polymorphism; however, inside the various serotypes, we demonstrated a fair homogeneity. No correlation among invasiveness and T serotype or PFGE pattern has been shown. Twenty-two of 99 strains were erythromycin-resistant.

Prevalence of Genotypic Resistance to Nucleoside Analogues and Protease Inhibitors in Antiretroviral-Naive HIV Patients in Campania, Italy

The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of genotypic resistance to nucleoside analogues and protease inhibitors before and after 1997, the year of introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) in Campania (Italy). Forty-eight plasma HIV-RNA positive patients who had not been previously treated for HIV infection (naïve) were enrolled in two Divisions of Infectious Diseases. The main demographic characteristics were collected for each subject and the primary mutant genotypes were sought only in HIV-RNA positive patients with viral loads higher than 10,000 copies/ml. The diagnosis of HIV infection dated back to before 1996 for 21 out of 48 patients and to after 2000 for the other 27. INNO-Line Probe Assay (LiPA) HIV-RT and INNO-LiPA HIV protease (Innogenetics, Italy) were used to detect mutations conferring resistance to zidovudine, didanosine, zalcitabine, lamivudine, stavudine, saquinavir, indinavir, rotonavir, nelfinavir and amprenavir. No mutations associated with primary resistance to nucleoside analogues and protease inhibitors were detected in the 21 patients who had acquired HIV infection before 1996, whereas one or more mutations were seen in three of the 27 (11.1%) patients with HIV infection diagnosed after 2000. This study confirms that LiPA is a suitable tool for epidemiological surveys of HIV genotypic primary resistance. Drug-resistant HIV-1 genotypes, resistant both to nucleoside analogues and protease inhibitors, were detected only in subjects who had acquired HIV infection after 2000, most of whom had zidovudine-resistant mutants. These data suggest that the introduction of HAART has brought about the circulation of drug-resistant HIV genotypes.

p53 and anti-p53 antibodies as possible markers of a switch towards a neoplastic phenotype in patients infected by Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori is a definite carcinogen whose mechanism of action is still unknown. The aim of this work was (1) to determine the presence of p53 protein and related antibodies in patients affected by various gastric pathologies and chronically infected with H. pylori, and (2) to try to discover a test to be used as a marker of a possible switch towards a neoplastic phenotype.

Secondary metabolites of Aspergillus exert immunobiological effects on human monocytes

This project focused on the effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a food-contaminating mycotoxin produced by fungi, genus Aspergillus, on the release and genetic expression of some important cytokines, i.e., (interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha)) by human monocytes. Monocytes, preincubated for different time periods with concentrations of AFB1 ranging from 0.01 to 1.0 pg/mL, were then activated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide. Cytokine levels were measured by immunoassay and mRNA by cDNA amplification. Pretreatment of monocytes with AFB1 resulted in a decrease in IL-1, IL-6 and TNF alpha release already at a concentration of 0.05 pg/mL. The gene expression of the cytokines considered was drastically affected by treatment with AFB1. In fact, AFB1 completely blocked the transcription of IL-1 alpha, IL-6 and TNF alpha mRNAs, while it did not affect beta-actin mRNA at the concentrations used. It therefore appears that AFB1 exerts its effect on cytokine release through selective inhibition of specific mRNA, without affecting general protein synthesis.