The aim of this study was to isolate Clostridium difficile from dogs' faeces, and to study the frequency of its virulence genes. A total of 151 samples of dogs' faeces were collected. The isolation of C. difficile was performed by using the bacterial culture methods followed by DNA extraction using boiling method. Multiplex PCR method was performed for identification of tcdA, tcdB, cdtA and cdt...

The genes for Clostridium difficile toxins A and B (tcdA and tcdB) are part of a 19.6-kb pathogenicity locus (PaLoc) that includes the genes tcdD, tcdE, and tcdC. To determine whether the C. difficile PaLoc is a stable and conserved genetic unit in toxigenic strains, a multiplex polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze 50 toxigenic, 39 nontoxigenic, and 2 toxin-defective isolates. The resp...

Attaching and effacing Escherichia coli (AEEC) are extracellular pathogens that induce the formation of actin-rich structures at their sites of attachment to eukaryotic host cells. We analysed whether small GTP-binding proteins of the Rho- and Ras-subfamilies, which control the cellular actin system, are essential for these bacterial-induced microfilament reorganizations. For this purpose we sp...

background: reduced susceptibility of clostridium difficile to antibiotics is problematic in clinical settings. there is new evidence indicating the cotransfer of toxin-encoding genes and conjugative transposons encoding resistance to antibiotics among different c. difficile strains. to analyze this association, in the current study, we evaluated the frequency of toxigenic c. difficile among th...

Infection with Clostridium difficile and subsequent production of toxins A and B may result in C. difficile-associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis in hospital patients. The effect of four temperate phages, obtained by induction of clinical C. difficile isolates, on toxin production by C. difficile was determined. None of these phages converted a lysogenized non-toxigenic C. difficile...

The aim of this study was to isolate Clostridium difficile from dogs’ faeces, and to study the frequency of its virulence genes. A total of 151 samples of dogs’ faeces were collected. The isolation of C. difficile was performed by using the bacterial culture methods followed by DNA extraction using boiling method. Multiplex PCR method was performed for identification of tcdA, tcdB, cdtA and cdt...

BACKGROUND A prospective study was performed to investigate the prevalence of colonization among ICU patients and to examine whether asymptomatic carriers were the source of subsequent C. difficile infection (CDI) and acquisition of toxigenic C. difficile. METHODS Rectal swabs were collected from adult patients on admission to and at discharge from a 50-bed medical ICU of a major referral hos...

BACKGROUND C. difficile (CD) real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for toxin B gene (tcdB) is more sensitive, and reduces turnaround time when compared to toxin immunoassay. We noted typical amplification curves with high tcdB cycle thresholds (Ct) and low endpoints (Ept) that are labeled negative by the Xpert(®) C. difficile assay (Cepheid) and undertook this study to determine their signi...

Clostridium difficile TcdB2 enters cells with a higher efficiency than TcdB1 and exhibits an overall higher level of toxicity. However, the TcdB2-specific sequences that account for more efficient cell entry have not been reported. In this study, we examined the contribution of carboxy-terminal sequence differences to TcdB activity by comparing the binding, uptake, and endosomal localization of...