Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) isolates lacking mecA yet testing positive on the Xpert MRSA assay were recovered from culture for 7.7% of 248 Xpert-positive nasal samples. These "false-positive" Xpert results may be attributed to staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCC) elements without the mecA gene. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis revealed a diverse popu...

An emerging public health phenomenon is the increasing incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections that are acquired outside of health care facilities. One lineage of community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) is known as the Western Samoan phage pattern (WSPP) clone. The central aim of this study was to develop an efficient genotyping procedure for the identification of W...

We investigated whether activation of A(1) or A(3) adenosine receptors (ARs) induces late preconditioning (PC) against infarction in conscious rabbits using the selective AR agonists 2-chloro-N(6)-cyclopentyladenosine (CCPA) and N(6)-3-iodobenzyladenosine-5'-N-methylcarboxamide (IB-MECA). In vitro radioligand binding and cAMP assays demonstrated CCPA to be approximately 200- to 400-fold selecti...

Cefoxitin is increasingly recommended for detection of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) when using disk diffusion testing. In this study, 95 mecA-negative S. aureus isolates and a highly genetically diverse collection of mecA-positive S. aureus types (n=50) were used to investigate the influence of technical factors such as disk potency, incubation time, and temperature on...

OBJECTIVES This study focused on the correlation between geno- and phenotypic tests in the correct assessment of mecA-mediated methicillin resistance among coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) and the further characterization of mecA-positive isolates. METHODS A total of 121 CoNS from cases of bovine mastitis were investigated for oxacillin susceptibility by disc diffusion and broth microd...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most important member of coagulase negative staphylococci responsible for community and hospital acquired infections. Most clinical isolates of S. epidermidis are resistant to methicillin making these infections difficult to treat. In this study, correlation of methicillin resistance phenotype was compared with methicillin resistance (mecA) gene carriage in 55 ...

The homing of lymphocytes to peripheral lymph nodes is initiated by an adhesive interaction between L-selectin on lymphocytes and PNAd, a set of sialomucins that are constitutively displayed on high endothelial venules of lymph nodes. PNAd is defined by monoclonal antibody MECA-79 that recognizes a sulfated oligosaccharide carried by the sialomucins. This epitope overlaps with 6-sulfo sialyl Le...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective role of pharmacological preconditioning on antioxidant enzymes using A(1) and A(3) adenosine receptor agonists in the recovery of the isolated myocardium after cardioplegic ischemia. Two different modes of preconditioning were studied: isolated rat hearts were perfused with A(1) receptor agonist 2-chloro-N(6)-cyclopentyladenosine (C...

The genetic composition and antibiotic sensitivities of 50 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus obtained from various clinics in the Republic of Georgia were characterized. S. aureus strains ATCC 700699 and ATCC 29737 were included as reference standards in all analyses. All 52 strains had identical 16S rRNA profiles. In contrast, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) identified 20 dist...

BACKGROUND Agonists to A3 adenosine receptor (A3AR) were shown to inhibit the growth of various tumor cell types. The present study demonstrates that a synthetic A3AR agonist, 1-deoxy-1-[6-[[(3-iodophenyl)methyl]amino]-9H-purine- 9-yl]-N-methyl-beta-D-ribofura-nuronamide (IB-MECA), inhibits the growth of androgen-independent PC-3 prostate human carcinoma cells and illustrates the molecular mech...