Rapid bactericidal and anti-virulence effects of Quercus infectoria gall extract against the pharyngitis causing pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes.

Cobalt-ferrocene MOF-based colorimetric biosensing platform for naked-eye detection of human papillomavirus.

Haemosporidians, including Leucocytozoon spp., Plasmodium spp., and Haemoproteus spp., are vector-borne parasites that cause avian malaria and malaria-like diseases in birds. These infections can result in anaemia, reduced body condition, impaired reproductive success, and mortality, thereby acting as selective agents within host populations. Climate change is expected to influence dynamics of some haemosporidians, particularly in northern regions, by altering vector distributions and extending transmission seasons. In this study, tawny owls (Strix aluco; n=27) from central Norway, were screened for Leucocytozoon spp., Haemoproteus spp.,and Plasmodium spp., using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Samples were also screened for herpesvirus and Chlamydia spp., via PCR, to assess potential co-infections. Ten individuals (37%) tested positive for Leucocytozoon spp., with sequencing confirming the lineages STAL3 and STAL1, both previously detected in raptors. While seven individuals (26%) were positive in the Haemoproteus/Plasmodium PCR, sequencing was unsuccessful and infection could not be confirmed. Neither herpesvirus nor Chlamydia spp. were detected. This study provides the first molecular evidence of haemosporidian infections in raptors in Norway, underscoring the importance of continued surveillance of avian haemosporidians in resident northern species, to detect potential climate-driven changes in infection prevalence and associated health impacts.

Cryptosporidium species is an obligate intracellular gastrointestinal zoonotic protozoan parasite that widely exists in nature and is associated with cryptosporidiosis outbreaks in humans. There is paucity of reports on the comprehensive study of the epidemiology of the disease in ruminants in the study area. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the prevalence, risk factors and molecular identification of Cryptosporidium parvum species in sheep and cattle in Maiduguri, Nigeria. In this cross-sectional study, fecal samples were collected from a total of 764 animals comprising of 383 from cattle and 381 from sheep in Maiduguri, and analyzed microscopically using formalin-ethylacetate sedimentation method followed by modified Kinyoun's acid-fast staining technique. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was applied to confirm the identity of C. parvum using conventional PCR and sequencing. An overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection was 16.2% (124/764), with cattle having a higher prevalence of 20.4% (78/383) than sheep 12.1% (46/381) using microscopy. Cattle were statistically significantly more infected with Cryptosporidium species than sheep (p=0.0026). Multiple regression analysis identified important risk factors for Cryptosporidium specie infection in the sheep to include sex, age, body condition score and fecal consistency while only sex and age were identified as risk factors in the cattle. Cryptosporidium parvum was detected by PCR amplification of 18S rRNA gene in (8/25) from cattle and (5/25) from sheep. This is the first report on the molecular identification of C. parvum from Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria highlighting the need for improved hygiene and biosecurity to reduce the transmission of Cryptosporidiosis in farmed animals.

Prevalence and characterization of bacterial rectal colonization patterns in pediatric patients: A cross-sectional study.

Rapid detection of NDM-producing carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli using MALDI-TOF MS combined with machine learning techniques.

Introduction: Human adenoviral infections, though prevalent among children, are often under-reported. Although adenoviral infections are usually self-limiting, they can cause significant morbidity and hospitalisations in children. Aim: To evaluate the demographic, clinical, laboratory and radiological characteristics of paediatric patients hospitalised with Human Adenovirus (HAdV) infection. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based retrospective study conducted in the Paediatric Outpatient Department (OPD) and inpatient wards of Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Hyderabad, Telangana, India for a period of 11 months from February 2023 to December 2023. A total of 210 children aged one month to 16 years who tested positive for adenovirus by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) on a nasopharyngeal swab were included in the study. The demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological profiles of these cases were analysed. The statistical analysis was performed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 27.0 (Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Of the 210 children who tested positive for adenovirus, 126 (60%) were males and 129 (61.42%) were between one and five years of age. Notably, 141 children (67.14%) were hospitalised during the summer season. Most cases occurred during the summer months, predominantly among males aged 1-5 years. Symptoms included high-grade persistent fever in 205 cases (97.62%), cough and cold in 129 (61.42%), vomiting in 59 (28.1%) and loose stools in 27 (12.86%). Less frequent presentations were pneumonia in 12 cases (5.71%), seizures in 8 (3.81%), burning micturition in 5 (2.38%) and conjunctivitis in 4 (1.9%). Children were categorised into three groups: A, B and C- based on their clinical presentation as respiratory, gastrointestinal or mixed types, respectively. A significant difference in C-Reactive Protein (CRP) distribution was observed among the three groups (p-value <0.0001). CRP positivity (>10 mg/L) was most frequent in group A, 78/99 (78.8%), followed by group C 36/52 (69.2%), while group B showed a lower proportion 21/59 (35.6%). Group A children had significantly higher CRP levels and a longer duration of fever. Of the 210 cases, 195 children (92.86%) were treated with antibiotics. Conclusion: The HAdV infections present with high-grade fever and respiratory symptoms are their predominant manifestation. HAdV infections should be considered as a differential diagnosis in children with prolonged fever and multisystem involvement. In addition, gastrointestinal involvement was common. All children had favourable outcomes and were discharged without any complications. Early and accurate diagnosis of HAdV infection using rapid diagnostic tests prevents unnecessary antibiotic use and aids parental counselling and should be routinely employed.

The large amount of data collected through automatic milking systems (AMS) may be used for early detection of intramammary infections and become instrumental for monitoring udder health in dairy herds. Machine learning (ML) techniques can aid in improving diagnostic test properties of current indicators of subclinical mastitis (SCM). In this study, we present novel customized ML models for predicting SCM from AMS data. We show how results from several diagnostic tests can be incorporated into ML model training by explicitly accounting for their sensitivity and specificity. The underlying infection status was modeled as a latent variable derived from bacteriological culture (BC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results on milk samples. Model performance was evaluated using a customized log-likelihood (CLL) function, addressing uncertainty in prediction target, and compared with traditional metrics using simulated data. Our study demonstrates that incorporating prior knowledge of sensitivity and specificity of the tests directly into the likelihood function during model training enables reliable ML even in scenarios with an imperfect target variable. The customized models achieved the highest CLL scores on real data and demonstrated significantly better calibration on simulated data. At the same time, all models showed similarly near-perfect area under the curve (AUC) on simulated data. Further validation across herds is needed, but our approach shows promise for robust SCM prediction from AMS data using ML. The framework is applicable to other scenarios in veterinary epidemiology with imperfectly measured outcomes.

The isolation of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is common in cattle positive for tuberculosis (TB) in official diagnostic tests, whereas data on specific NTM species in Spanish cattle remain limited. This study identifies the most frequently isolated NTM species from Single Intradermal Tuberculin Test (SITT)-positive cattle in Extremadura, western Spain. Among 1669 Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) positive cultures collected in 2018, 493 (29.54 %) were identified as NTM, and 194 were randomly selected for further analysis. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-restriction analysis of the hsp65 gene and partial sequencing of 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) confirmed a diverse range of species. The most prevalent complex was Mycobacterium avium (40.12 %), including M. senriense, M. intracellulare, and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Other notable NTM species (23.35 %) included M. bourgelatii, M. kansasii, M. gordonae, and M. shinjukuense. Less frequent complexes included M. simiae (11.38 %), M. ulcerans (3.59 %), M. parafortuitum (2.99 %), and M. terrae (1.20 %), along with M. holsaticum (1.20 %), a species related to the M. tuberculosis complex. Phylogenetic analysis and geographic mapping revealed weak correlation between genetic and geographic distances (Mantel test: Rxy = 0.015, P = 0.253), suggesting limited spatial structuration of genetic diversity. Alpha diversity metrics indicated moderate diversity (Shannon's H = 2.641, Simpson's D = 0.106), with some zones exhibiting greater species evenness. Diversity analyses showed moderate dissimilarity among clusters. These findings enhance understanding of Mycobacterium diversity and distribution while emphasizing the diagnostic challenges posed by NTM in TB detection and the importance of molecular tools in species identification and epidemiological surveillance.

Pathogenomic insights and prevalence of the big six Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli from cattle and sheep.

Migratory Serpiginous Corneal Epitheliopathy (MSCE) is a rare condition characterized by migrating corneal epithelial lesions with a serpiginous or amoeboid-shaped appearance. Its etiology remains poorly understood, and the condition often presents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Here, we report a case of a recurrent, unilateral MSCE-like lesion in a 25-year-old woman not responding to standard treatments, including repeated corneal debridement, bandage contact lens placement, and superficial keratectomy with postoperative slow tapering of steroids. Eventually, microbiological testing of corneal epithelial scrapings obtained during a repeat superficial keratectomy revealed the presence of HSV-1 on both immunofluorescence assay and polymerase chain reaction. Although histopathology did not show classical features of HSV, viral cytopathic effects like perinuclear haloes were noted in some epithelial cells. Based on these findings, our patient was started on topical antiviral therapy (3% acyclovir eye ointment, 5 times daily for 1 month). This led to complete resolution of the lesion, with no recurrence at the last follow-up, 9 months after initiating topical antivirals. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case associating HSV to MSCE, emphasizing the importance of considering viral etiologies and microbiological evaluation, including virology in atypical, recurrent corneal epitheliopathies.

Eleusine indica is a widespread, competitive weed causing yield losses in major crops. Repeated use of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase)-inhibiting herbicides in cotton fields has led to the evolution of resistant populations, posing a growing threat to cotton production in China. This study aimed to elucidate the target-site resistance mechanism of E. indica to quizalofop-p-ethyl and establish a rapid visual detection method based on the identified mutation. The NJC-R population showed resistance to quizalofop-p-ethyl (resistance index = 5.5). Gene sequencing revealed that an Asp-2078-Gly mutation in ACCase was one of the mechanisms underlying resistance. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) combined with the CRISPR/Cas12a system was developed to detect this mutation in E. indica. This method not only enabled genotype discrimination (wild-type, heterozygous, homozygous mutant), but also provided visual results within 70 min, exhibiting superior performance compared with the derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences assay. In addition, this method eliminated false positives from nonspecific LAMP amplification, was ~100-fold more sensitive than a polymerase chain reaction, and the assay results were 100% concordant with Sanger sequencing for the 50 samples tested. This study confirmed that the Asp-2078-Gly mutation confers quizalofop-p-ethyl resistance in E. indica from the cotton field in China, and LAMP-CRISPR/Cas12a was first applied for detecting ACCase target-site mutations in E. indica. Given its rapidity and high accuracy, this technique has the potential to be applied for resistance monitoring and to guide rational herbicide application. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Early identification of invasive bacterial infections (IBI) in febrile infants under 90 days is essential, with blood biomarkers widely used for their risk evaluation. However, their diagnostic performance may vary by causative organism or type of IBI. We conducted a retrospective, multicenter study of infants ≤90 days with IBI treated in pediatric emergency departments of 18 hospitals (Spain and Latin America) from 2008 to 2022. IBI was defined by isolation or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of a pathogenic bacterium in blood or cerebrospinal fluid. Sensitivity of standard biomarker cutoffs was analyzed by pathogen and IBI type, with multivariate regression adjusting for age, sex, temperature, symptom duration and clinical presentation. Of 395 infants, Escherichia coli (45.6%) and Streptococcus agalactiae (25.6%) were the most frequently isolated bacteria, and bacteremia (43.8%) and bacteremic urinary tract infection (41.3%) were the most frequent IBI. Biomarker responses varied by organism and IBI type. E. coli IBIs showed higher white blood cell (WBC) and absolute neutrophil (ANC) counts and C-reactive protein levels than S. agalactiae IBIs. Only procalcitonin had high sensitivity for S. agalactiae IBIs. Standard cutoffs for WBC and ANC showed sensitivities below 50% for all pathogens and types of IBI. Biomarker levels in young febrile infants with IBIs depend on IBI type and causing bacteria. Increases in WBC, ANC and C-reactive protein are lower in isolated bacteremias than in bacteremic urinary tract infections. Procalcitonin is the best biomarker for ruling out S. agalactiae IBIs. These distinctions are key to interpreting lab tests and preventing underdiagnosis of invasive infections.

COX-2 downregulation via G-quadruplex structure induction in the PTGS2-promoter region by mononuclear octahedral cobalt(III) Schiff base complex [CoL3] in colorectal cancer cells.

Revelation of metabolic pathways and potential targets associated with latent and active pulmonary tuberculosis via transcriptome and metabonomics analysis.

Introduction: Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the primary causative agent of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) and has shown a concerning rise in Multidrug Resistance (MDR), including the production of Extended-Spectrum BetaLactamases (ESBLs) and carbapenemases. This resistance compromises the efficacy of conventional antibiotics, posing serious clinical threats such as pyelonephritis and urosepsis, in both community- and hospital-acquired settings. Aim: To evaluate the in-vitro antibacterial activity of Punica granatum extract against MDR Uropathogenic E. coli, including ESBL- and carbapenemase-producing MDR UPEC isolates. Materials and Methods: This in-vitro study was conducted at Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital (AVBRH), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Wardha, Maharashtra, India, over a period of seven months from May 2023 to November 2023. A total of 273 non duplicate UPEC isolates were included. These isolates were obtained from symptomatic UTI patients of all age groups and both sexes who provided clean-catch midstream urine samples during the study period. Identification of UPEC isolates was performed using standard biochemical methods. Phenotypic detection of ESBL and carbapenemase production was carried out in accordance with Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2022 guidelines. Molecular characterisation involved Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification for the detection of CTX-M genes (ESBL) and NDM genes (carbapenemase). The antibacterial activity of Punica granatum extract, prepared in different concentrations, was assessed using the KirbyBauer disc diffusion method. Mean zones of inhibition were compared using Student’s t-test, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Out of 273 UPEC isolates, 192 (70.3%) were identified as MDR. Among these, 82 were ESBL producers and 62 were carbapenemase producers, while 48 isolates were non producers of both ESBL and carbapenemase enzymes. The P. granatum extract demonstrated significant antibacterial activity, with mean zones of inhibition of 21.18±1.4 mm against ESBL-producing UPEC and 21.54±0.93 mm against carbapenemase-producing UPEC at 100% concentration, comparable to gentamicin. The antibacterial activity of the extract was dose-dependent, with minimal effect observed at lower concentrations. Solvent controls showed negligible antibacterial activity, confirming the specificity of the extract. Conclusion: The study highlights a high prevalence of MDR UPEC, particularly among hospitalised patients, underscoring the urgent need for alternative therapeutic strategies. The significant antibacterial activity of Punica granatum extract against ESBL- and carbapenemase-producing UPEC suggests its potential as a natural, plant-based adjunct or alternative to conventional antibiotics in the treatment of UTIs, especially in resource-limited settings.

Gardenia jasminoides fruit extract alleviates MC903-induced atopic dermatitis and reduces IL-4/IL-13-induced tight junction disruption and inflammation by regulating the phosphorylation of STAT6.

Association of NK6 homeobox 1 promoter methylation with HPV infection, histological sub-type, and patient outcomes in cervical lesions.

Effects of the administration of probiotic complexes of Bacillus coagulans and Clostridium butyricum on intestinal barrier damage induced by 5-fluorouracil in rats.

Artesunate ameliorates Staphylococcus aureus-induced mandibular osteomyelitis and promotes osteogenic differentiation via NOD2/p65 signaling pathway.