Important progress has been made in the management of Helicobacter pylori infection and in this fifth edition of the Maastricht Consensus Report, key aspects related to the clinical role of H. pylori were re-evaluated in 2015. In the Maastricht V/Florence Consensus Conference, 43 experts from 24 countries examined new data related to H. pylori in five subdivided workshops: (1) Indications/Associations, (2) Diagnosis, (3) Treatment, (4) Prevention/Public Health, (5) H. pylori and the Gastric Microbiota. The results of the individual workshops were presented to a final consensus voting that included all participants. Recommendations are provided on the basis of the best available evidence and relevance to the management of H. pylori infection in the various clinical scenarios.

https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/66/1/6.full.pdf

Management of Helicobacter pylori infection—the Maastricht V/Florence Consensus Report

Isothermal amplification of nucleic acids is a simple process that rapidly and efficiently accumulates nucleic acid sequences at constant temperature. Since the early 1990s, various isothermal amplification techniques have been developed as alternatives to polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These isothermal amplification methods have been used for biosensing targets such as DNA, RNA, cells, proteins, small molecules, and ions. The applications of these techniques for in situ or intracellular bioimaging and sequencing have been amply demonstrated. Amplicons produced by isothermal amplification methods have also been utilized to construct versatile nucleic acid nanomaterials for promising applications in biomedicine, bioimaging, and biosensing. The integration of isothermal amplification into microsystems or portable devices improves nucleic acid-based on-site assays and confers high sensitivity. Single-cell and single-molecule analyses have also been implemented based on integrated microfluidic systems. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the isothermal amplification of nucleic acids encompassing work published in the past two decades. First, different isothermal amplification techniques are classified into three types based on reaction kinetics. Then, we summarize the applications of isothermal amplification in bioanalysis, diagnostics, nanotechnology, materials science, and device integration. Finally, several challenges and perspectives in the field are discussed.

Isothermal Amplification of Nucleic Acids

Summary: Hantaviruses are enzootic viruses that maintain persistent infections in their rodent hosts without apparent disease symptoms. The spillover of these viruses to humans can lead to one of two serious illnesses, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. In recent years, there has been an improved understanding of the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and natural history of these viruses following an increase in the number of outbreaks in the Americas. In this review, current concepts regarding the ecology of and disease associated with these serious human pathogens are presented. Priorities for future research suggest an integration of the ecology and evolution of these and other host-virus ecosystems through modeling and hypothesis-driven research with the risk of emergence, host switching/spillover, and disease transmission to humans.

A Global Perspective on Hantavirus Ecology, Epidemiology, and Disease

Amphotericin B (AmB) is a crucial agent in the management of serious systemic fungal infections. In spite of its proven track record, its well-known side effects and toxicity will sometimes require discontinuation of therapy despite a life-threatening systemic fungal infection. The mechanism of action of AmB is based on the binding of the AmB molecule to the fungal cell membrane ergosterol, producing an aggregate that creates a transmembrane channel, allowing the cytoplasmic contents to leak out, leading to cell death. Most of the efforts at improving AmB have been focused on the preparation of AmB with a lipid conjugate. AmB administration is limited by infusion-related toxicity, an effect postulated to result from proinflammatory cytokine production. The principal acute toxicity of AmB deoxycholate includes nausea, vomiting, rigors, fever, hypertension or hypotension, and hypoxia. Its principal chronic adverse effect is nephrotoxicity. AmB probably produces renal injury by a variety of mechanisms. Risk factors for AmB nephrotoxicity include male gender, higher average daily dose of AmB (> or = 35 mg/day), diuretic use, body weight > or = 90 kg, concomitant use of nephrotoxic drugs, and abnormal baseline renal function. Clinical manifestations of AmB nephrotoxicity include renal insufficiency, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, metabolic academia, and polyuria due to nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. Human studies show convincingly that sodium loading in excess of the usual dietary intake notably reduces the incidence and severity of AmB-induced nephrotoxicity.

/pdf/amphotericin-b-side-effects-and-toxicity-5c3mr3p3ht.pdf

Amphotericin B: side effects and toxicity

https://escholarship.org/content/qt6xw5b20t/qt6xw5b20t.pdf?t=qeu451

Targeted Peptide Measurements in Biology and Medicine: Best Practices for Mass Spectrometry-based Assay Development Using a Fit-for-Purpose Approach

Whereas the importance of calcium as a cell regulator is well established in eukaryotes, the role of calcium in prokaryotes is still elusive. Over the past few years, there has been an increased interest in the role of calcium in bacteria. It has been demonstrated that as in eukaryotic organisms, the intracellular calcium concentration in prokaryotes is tightly regulated ranging from 100 to 300 nM. It has been found that calcium ions are involved in the maintenance of cell structure, motility, transport and cell differentiation processes such as sporulation, heterocyst formation and fruiting body development. In addition, a number of calcium-binding proteins have been isolated in several prokaryotic organisms. The characterization of these proteins and the identification of other factors suggest the possibility that calcium signal transduction exists in bacteria. This review presents recent developments of calcium in bacteria as it relates to signal transduction.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2004.04276.x

Calcium signalling in bacteria

Infectious pathogens often cause serious public health concerns throughout the world. There is an increasing demand for simple, rapid and sensitive approaches for multiplexed pathogen detection. In this paper we have developed a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/paper/glass hybrid microfluidic system integrated with aptamer-functionalized graphene oxide (GO) nano-biosensors for simple, one-step, multiplexed pathogen detection. The paper substrate used in this hybrid microfluidic system facilitated the integration of aptamer biosensors on the microfluidic biochip, and avoided complicated surface treatment and aptamer probe immobilization in a PDMS or glass-only microfluidic system. Lactobacillus acidophilus was used as a bacterium model to develop the microfluidic platform with a detection limit of 11.0 cfu mL−1. We have also successfully extended this method to the simultaneous detection of two infectious pathogens - Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enterica. This method is simple and fast. The one-step ‘turn on’ pathogen assay in a ready-to-use microfluidic device only takes ∼10 min to complete on the biochip. Furthermore, this microfluidic device has great potential in rapid detection of a wide variety of different other bacterial and viral pathogens.

A PDMS/paper/glass hybrid microfluidic biochip integrated with aptamer-functionalized graphene oxide nano-biosensors for one-step multiplexed pathogen detection

Bacterial meningitis is a serious health concern worldwide. Given that meningitis can be fatal and many meningitis cases occurred in high-poverty areas, a simple, low-cost, highly sensitive method is in great need for immediate and early diagnosis of meningitis. Herein, we report a versatile and cost-effective polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/paper hybrid microfluidic device integrated with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for the rapid, sensitive, and instrument-free detection of the main meningitis-causing bacteria, Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis). The introduction of paper into the microfluidic device for LAMP reactions enables stable test results over a much longer period of time than a paper-free microfluidic system. This hybrid system also offers versatile functions, by providing not only on-site qualitative diagnostic analysis (i.e., a yes or no answer), but also confirmatory testing and quantitative analysis in laboratory settings. The limit of detection of N. meningitidis is about 3 copies per LAMP zone within 45 min, close to single-bacterium detection sensitivity. In addition, we have achieved simple pathogenic microorganism detection without a laborious sample preparation process and without the use of centrifuges. This low-cost hybrid microfluidic system provides a simple and highly sensitive approach for fast instrument-free diagnosis of N. meningitidis in resource-limited settings. This versatile PDMS/paper microfluidic platform has great potential for the point of care (POC) diagnosis of a wide range of infectious diseases, especially for developing nations.

Delfina C. Dominguez

Papers

Calcium signalling in bacteria

A PDMS/paper/glass hybrid microfluidic biochip integrated with aptamer-functionalized graphene oxide nano-biosensors for one-step multiplexed pathogen detection

A Versatile PDMS/Paper Hybrid Microfluidic Platform for Sensitive Infectious Disease Diagnosis

Calcium binding proteins and calcium signaling in prokaryotes

Multiplexed instrument-free meningitis diagnosis on a polymer/paper hybrid microfluidic biochip.