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No description available.

The problem of finding an efficient antibiotic against Pseudomonas aeruginosa which can be used in the clinical treatment of genito-urinary tract infections resistant to treatment by streptomycin has not yet been solved. Therefore, this problem has consisted of first, the acquisition of possible inhibitors of the streptomycin resistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa; second, the selection and identification of those which show a marked antagonism toward this organism; third, the determination of the antibiotic spectra of the inhibitors; fourth, the determination of whether the streptomycin resistant strain could also acquire a resistance to the antibiotic produced by its inhibitors; and last, an attempt to evaluate the therapeutic possibilities of the antibiotics demonstrated.

Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

Dissertation (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

MexCD-OprJ is an RND-type multidrug efflux pump present in P. aeruginosa and is capable of exporting, and as such providing resistance to, several clinically important antimicrobials including fluoroquinolones, cephems, macrolides, and several biocides including chlorhexidine (CHX). Expression of mexCD-oprJ is negatively regulated by NfxB, a LacI-type repressor. The promoter region of mexCD-oprJ was identified and included two inverted repeat operator sites, B1 and B2, both of which are required in order for NfxB to bind, thereby repressing mexCD-oprJ. NfxB oligomerizes into a tetramer in solution and likely functions as a dimer of NfxB homodimers. In addition to being derepressed by loss of NfxB, MexCD-OprJ is inducible by a variety of non-antibiotic membrane-damaging agents (MDAs) such as CHX. A homologue of NfxB, PA4596, was found to be induced in response to CHX-promoted envelope stress in an AlgU-dependent manner and is directly repressed by NfxB. Loss of PA4596 resulted in increased resistance to the biocide CHX, shown to be a result of increased CHX-dependent expression of mexCD-oprJ. Susceptibility to CHX was restored upon expression of PA4596 from the plasmid pAK1900 as was decreased expression of mexCD-oprJ in the presence of CHX, indicating that PA4596 contributes to mexCD-oprJ repression in the presence of CHX. PA4596 was found to form oligomers in solution, likely dimers and tetramers. In the absence of NfxB, PA4596 is unable to contribute to repression of mexCD-oprJ. However, NfxB and PA4596 interact and together form a repressor capable of regulating mexCD-oprJ expression. Screening of transposon mutants for increased resistance to erythromycin potentially indicative of increased mexCD-oprJ expression lead to the identification of several novel genes including PA0479, cupA3, faoA, PA3259, mucD, and clpA whose loss generated a multidrug resistance profile consistent with increased production of MexCD-OprJ. However, further studies are required to determine how each of these genes may be affecting expression of mexCD-oprJ. / Thesis (Ph.D, Microbiology & Immunology) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-12 12:07:28.67

La presente tesis tuvo como objetivo principal evaluar la influencia del meropenem en la formación de piocianina y alginato por cepas de Pseudomonas aeruginosa formadoras de biopelículas. Se detectó un 75% (60/80) de cepas formadoras de biopelículas por el método de O'Toole - Kolter de 80 aislados provenientes de pacientes de los Hospitales Nacionales Edgardo Rebagliati Martins y Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen, de las cuales el 30.0% (18/60) evidenciaron producción de piocianina en una concentración de 6.0 ug/mL a 6.5 ug/mL y el 36.6% (22/60) se evidenció producción de alginato en concentraciones de 6 ug/mL a 10 ug/mL expresado como ácido urónico en presencia de meropenem a la concentración de 10 μg . Sin embargo en ausencia de meropenem se obtuvo una menor producción de piocianina y alginato, por lo que se comprobó que el pigmento de piocianina y la producción de alginato son mecanismos de virulencia que favorecen la supervivencia de Pseudomonas aeruginosa en presencia del antibiótico.

The growth of environmentally persistent biofilms in cooling towers causes several associated problems, including microbiologically-induced corrosion (MIC) and biofouling. Current chemical control methods are not only ineffective against biofilms and costly to procure, they also have downstream environmental impacts when released untreated, or incur additional treatment costs. Bacteriophages are alternative biofilm control agents that have the potential to be more effective, cheaper to produce and yet have a more benign effect on the environment. In this study, biofilms grown under conditions simulating seawater fed cooling towers were characterized and the differences in growth and community make-up across time and different substrates were assessed. An MIC associated bacterium common in cooling tower water, P. aeruginosa, was chosen. Seven bacteriophage strains found to be effective against the chosen bacterium were isolated from wastewater influent. The relative effectiveness of these strains was measured against P. aeruginosa across different salinities. Separate biofilms fed with P. aeruginosa enriched seawater were characterized and the effectiveness of the isolated strains, singly and in cocktails, against the enriched biofilms was measured.

This investigation was concerned with the relationship of the slime layer material of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Verder and Evans strain 1369, to the presumably somatic "O" type of antigen used by these authors as the base for their serological schema.

The purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of the ecological relationships of P. aeruginosa by investigating the differences or similarities between the strains of this organism found in sewage and those found as pathogens in human infections. This research was approached by comparing the serological types of P. aeruginosa isolated from sewage contaminated waters in Argentina (South America) to those isolated from sewage contaminated waters in Texas. They were typed with sera obtained using P. aeruginosa isolated from human infections. The data obtained revealed that bacteria isolated from sewage in Texas and from soil and water in Argentina are antigenically similar to those isolated from human infections.