Marche Polytechnic University

About: Marche Polytechnic University is a education organization based out in Ancona, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Prostate cancer. The organization has 5905 authors who have published 15769 publications receiving 382286 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitá Politecnica delle Marche & Universita Politecnica delle Marche.

A Unique MicroRNA Signature Associated With Plaque Instability in Humans

Abstract: Background and Purpose—Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is considered the most important mechanism that underlies the onset of stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. Several evidences demonstrated the pivotal role of inflammatory processes in plaque destabilization. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogenous RNAs and represent a new important class of gene regulators. Nevertheless, no data exist about the expression profile of miRNAs in atherosclerotic plaques. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the expression level of miRNAs in human plaques and to correlate it with clinical features of plaque destabilization. Methods—Two separate groups of plaques were collected from patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy in Chieti (n=15) and Ancona (n=38) Hospitals. All the plaques were subdivided in symptomatic (n=22) and asymptomatic (n=31) according to the presence/absence of stroke. Results—First, on the plaques collected at Chieti Hospital, we performed large-scale analysis of miRNA express...

Biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae urinary strains.

Abstract: Aims Multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae has become a relevant healthcare-associated pathogen. Capsule, type 1 and 3 fimbriae (mrkA gene), type 2 quorum-sensing system (luxS), synthesis of D-galactan I (wbbM), LPS transport (wzm) and poly-beta-1,6-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (pgaA) seem involved in K. pneumoniae biofilm. Non-enzymatic antibiotic resistance is related to non-expression or mutation of porins (OmpK35 and OmpK36), and efflux pump (acrB) over-expression. The aim of this study was to analyse some virulence factors of K. pneumoniae isolates, and to evaluate possible correlations between their antibiotic resistance profile and ability to form biofilm. Methods and Results Quantitative biofilm production assay, congo red agar test and string test were performed on 120 isolates clustered in 56 extensively drug resistant (XDR, 40 MDR and 24 susceptible (S)). Nine representative strains were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR for the expression of antibiotic resistance (OmpK35, OmpK36, acrB) and biofilm production genes (mrkA, luxS,, pga, wbbM, wzm) during planktonic and sessile growth. XDR isolates showed a higher ability to form biofilm (91.07%) and to produce polysaccharides (78.57%) when compared to MDR and S strains. In biofilm-growing XDR strains, 7 out of 8 genes were upregulated, with the only exception of OmpK36. Conclusions XDR strains exhibited phenotypic and genotypic features supporting a significant growth as biofilm. Significance and Impact of Study this study produces new findings that highlight a positive correlation between antibiotic resistance profile and biofilm-forming ability in XDR K. pneumoniae strains. These new evidences might contribute to the progress in selection of therapeutic treatments of infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae resistant also to the “last line of defense” antibiotics, i.e. carbapenems. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.