Many pathogens that infect humans use cell surface carbohydrates as receptors to facilitate cell-cell adhesion. The hallmark of these interactions is their multivalency, or the simultaneous occurrence of multiple interactions. We have used a carbohydrate-functionalized fluorescent polymer, which displays many carbohydrate ligands on a single polymer chain, to allow for multivalent detection of ...

The development of resistance to a range of antibiotics by some important pathogens has raised the possibility of a return of humans to the pre-antibiotic dark ages. Time has come to shift the paradigm of treatment from specific bacteria elimination to altering bacterial ecology by probiotics. Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeasts. They help in ...

Human pathogens can survive and grow in hot springs. For water quality assessment, Escherichia coli or Enterococci are the main thermotolerant enteric bacteria commonly used to estimate the load of pathogenic bacteria in water. However, most of the environmental bacteria are unculturable thus culture methods may cause bias in detection of most pathogens. Illumina sequencing can provide a more c...

Defense of attempted infection depends on the host’s ability to sense invading pathogens and rapidly activate immune responses. Pathogens, in turn, use a repertoire of evasion strategies and virulence factors to circumvent the host’s surveillance and defense systems. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a complex glycolipid covering the cell surface of gram-negative bacteria, is a virulence factor shieldi...

Resistance to antimicrobial drugs is increasing at an alarming rate among both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Traditionally, bacteria resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents have been restricted to the nosocomial environment. A disturbing trend has been the recent emergence and spread of resistant pathogens and resistance traits in nursing homes, the community, as well as in hospi...

Multidrug-resistant pathogens are an emerging global health problem. In addition to the need of developing new antibiotics in the pipeline, the ability to rapidly determine the antibiotic resistance profiles of bacteria represents one of the most crucial steps toward the management of infectious diseases and the prevention of multidrug-resistant pathogens. Here, we report a single cell antimicr...

ÐMicrobial pathogens are one of the major health risks associated with water and wastewaters. Current methods for the detection of pathogenic viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths tend to be inaccurate, time consuming and expensive. As a result, indicator bacteria are commonly used to determine the relative risk of faecal contamination and the possible presence of pathogens in water and was...

Work in Hospital Emergency Departments (HEDs) exposes both the emergency ward staff and patients to infectious and in other way harmful biological agents. The results of this study shows the presence of pathogenic bacteria isolated by three different methods. It revealed 9.8% of pathogens detected by imprint method, 10.5% of pathogens by swabbing method, 17.6% and 22% in HEDs corridors and room...

This study contributes to the improvement of low-cost biotechnology for wastewater treatment in constructed wetlands (CWs). Constructed wetlands are energy efficient engineered systems that mimic the treatment processes of natural wetlands, removing polluting organic matter, nutrients, and pathogens from water. The aim of this study was to investigate the advisability of the inoculation of hori...