实验动物技术

Membranes, in general, constitute the boundary between a cell or a cell compartment and its environment. They are composed of (glyco)lipids and (glyco)proteins, function as permeability barriers, maintain constant ion gradients across the membrane, and guarantee a controlled stea ...

Botulinum neurotoxins produced by strains of the spore-bearing bacterium Clostridium botulinum have long been known to cause a distinctive paralytic disease in humans and animals (1). In recent years, injection of crystalline botulinum toxin type A has been demonstrated to provide re ...

The Shiga family of toxins is comprised of a group of genetically and functionally related molecules whose original family member was described 100 yr ago. Up until the early 1980s this group of toxins was little more than a scientific curiosity without a clear role in disease pathogenesis. Howev ...

The fusion protein toxins that have been described are generally composed of the catalytic and transmembrane domains of a bacterial toxin (e.g., diphtheria toxin or Pseudomonas exotoxin A) to which a polypeptide hormone, growth factor, or single-chain antibody (scFv) is genetically fus ...

Some species and strains within the freshwater cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) genera Microcystis, Oscillatoria (also known as Planktothrix), Anabaena, and Nostoc are known to produce cyclic heptapeptide liver toxins, microcystins. Closely related toxic cyclic pent ape pt ...

The availability of bacterial toxin genes and, in many cases, their atomic structures permits, through properly designed structure-function studies, the precise mapping of the molecular determinants of their activity. The results of such studies are of particular importance for the ...

Pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus produce a large number of exotoxins (1). Among these a family of single-chain leukotoxins of 32–34 kDa has been identified. They include α-toxin (or α-hemolysin), which is probably one of the best studied toxins (2), and a large group of bicomponent tox ...

When a fluorophore absorbs a photon, an electron is excited to a higher energy level. This excited state electron returns to its ground state by one of two competing processes. In radiative de-excitation, a brief relaxation time (about 10-12 s) is followed by the electron’s return to the ground state ac ...

As with many other bacterial species, the most commonly used method to assess staphylococcal biofilm formation in vitro is the microtiter plate assay. This assay is particularly useful for comparison of multiple strains including large-scale screens of mutant libraries. When such scr ...

Multiple drug resistance to antibiotics is a major public health problem. Many mechanisms may be involved in such resistance. Increasing data have shown that Staphylococcus aureus can invade different types of nonphagocytic cells, which, in turn, may contribute to evasion of the toxici ...

This chapter explains computer techniques for comparing genes, proteins, or genomes of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In the principle methodology for comparative genomics, first researchers obtain the data of DNA sequences and phenotypes for various s ...

The microarray has shown tremendous potential for investigating gene expression profiles and expression levels in comparative biology; exploring the regulation mechanisms of gene expression; and evaluating target gene for developing new chemotherapeutic agents, vacci ...

Over the past decade numerous genomes of pathogenic bacteria were fully sequenced and annotated, while others are continuously being sequenced and published. To date, the sequences of 440 bacterial genomes are publicly available for research purposes. These efforts in high-throug ...

The role of the inanimate environment, including the air, in the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is unclear; however, there are certain situations when evaluation of MRSA contamination of the environment is indicated. At this point, co ...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has posed an immense problem for clinicians in the hospital setting for years, emerging as the most frequent nosocomial infection. To deal with this problem pathogen and others, infectious disease specialists have developed a v ...

We review data on the treatment of infections caused by drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, particularly methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). In this review, we cover findings reported in the English language medical literature up to February 2006. Despite the emergence of res ...

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen associated with diverse clinical presentations. Only recently have the genetic factors underlying the virulence of this bacterial species become understood in a significant way. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains h ...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major pathogen responsible for both hospital- and community-onset disease. Resistance to methicillin in S. aureus is mediated by PBP2a, a penicillin-binding protein with low affinity to β-lactams, encoded by the mecA gene. Ac ...

The widespread occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or oxacillin-resistant MRSA is a major cause of concern worldwide. Although mainly located in hospital environments, these microorganisms have been reported to have the capacity to cause infec ...

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is a genetic typing method that is widely used as a molecular epidemiological tool for studying the genetic diversity of Staphylococcus aureus and numerous other bacterial pathogens. For PFGE, intact bacterial cells are embedded in soft agaro ...