Background: The rates of postneurosurgical infections, particularly meningitis and the most common pathogens have been reported variable during the recent years. The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence of postneurosurgical meningitis and its current spectrum of infectious agent. Methods: In a descriptive study, the postneurosurgical patients’ cerebrospinal fluid was cultured o...

In 1908, Sir William Osler was the first to suggest that infection might play a role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis . Even though this view was not widely accepted originally, a renewed interest currently abounds regarding the contribution of infection to the pathogenesis and progression of ischemic heart disease. The current concept of atherosclerosis is based on the model “response to...

Dalton-Griffin and Kellam: Journal of Biology 2009, 8:67 Abstract Molecular techniques for identifying pathogens associated with cancer continue to be developed, including one reported recently in BMC Medical Genomics. Identifying a causal infectious agent helps in understanding the biology of these cancers and can lead ultimately to the development of antimicrobial drugs and vaccines for their...

Introduction The problem of juvenile scleroderma (JS) is determined by a variety of clinical manifestations, tendency to early generalized process with the development of peripheral and visceral lesions. In the last decade various forms JS associated with Borrelia infection, as evidenced by the discovery of a skin biopsy patients spirochete Borrelia Burgdorferii afzelii, garinii and the presenc...

Clinically useful antibiotics, β-lactams and vancomycin, are known to inhibit bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan synthesis. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has a unique cell wall structure consisting of peptidoglycan and wall teichoic acid. In recent years, new anti-infectious agents (spirohexaline, tripropeptin C, DMPI, CDFI, cyslabdan, 1835F03, and BPH-652) targeting MRSA ce...

Cancer has periodically been proposed as transmissible disease in animals and humans, and specific pathogens have long been searched for. Several biomolecular studies, fundamental in understanding cancer pathogenesis, have identified mechanisms directly/indirectly involved in pathogens-related cancer, including 1) oncogene transduction, with introduction of exogenous oncogenic genes; 2) activat...