Clinical Science and Epidemiology
Commentary | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyTracking a Global Threat: a New Genotyping Method for Candida aurisOver the past decade, Candida auris has emerged as an urgent threat to public health. Initially reported from cases of ear infections in Japan and Korea, C. auris has since been detected around the world. While whole-genome sequencing has been extensively used to trace the genetic relationships of...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyEmergence of a Plasmid-Encoded Resistance-Nodulation-Division Efflux Pump Conferring Resistance to Multiple Drugs, Including Tigecycline, in Klebsiella pneumoniaeIn an era of increasing concerns about antimicrobial resistance, tigecycline is likely to have a critically important role in the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, the most problematic pathogens in human clinical settings—especially carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae....
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyIsolation and Molecular Analysis of a Novel Neorickettsia Species That Causes Potomac Horse FeverDespite the detection of Neorickettsia species DNA sequences in various trematode species and their hosts, only three Neorickettsia species have been cell culture isolated and whole-genome sequenced and are known to infect mammals and/or cause disease. The molecular mechanisms that enable the obligatory intracellular bacterium Neorickettsia to colonize trematodes and to horizontally transmit from trematodes to...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyStaphylococcus epidermidis MSCRAMM SesJ Is Encoded in Composite IslandsS. epidermidis is an opportunistic bacterium that has established itself as a successful nosocomial pathogen. The modern era of novel therapeutics and medical devices has extended the longevity of human life, but at the same time, we also witness the evolution of pathogens to adapt to newly available niches in the host. Increasing antibiotic resistance among pathogens...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyGenome Dynamics of Vibrio cholerae Isolates Linked to Seasonal Outbreaks of Cholera in Dhaka, BangladeshThe switching of serotype from Ogawa to Inaba and back to Ogawa has been observed temporally in Vibrio cholerae O1, which is responsible for endemic cholera in Bangladesh. The serospecificity is key for effective intervention and for preventing cholera, a deadly disease that continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the present study, WGS of...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyGut Feelings Begin in Childhood: the Gut Metagenome Correlates with Early Environment, Caregiving, and BehaviorChildhood is a formative period of behavioral and biological development that can be modified, for better or worse, by the psychosocial environment that is in part determined by caregivers. Not only do our own genes and the external environment influence such developmental trajectories, but the community of microbes living in, on, and around our bodies—the microbiome—plays an important role as well. By surveying the gut microbiomes of a...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyInfluenza Virus Infection Induces a Narrow Antibody Response in Children but a Broad Recall Response in AdultsIt is known since Thomas Francis, Jr. published his first paper on original antigenic sin in 1960 that the first infection(s) with influenza virus leaves a special immunological imprint which shapes immune responses to future infections with antigenically related influenza virus strains. Imprinting has been implicated in both protective effects as well as blunting of the immune response to vaccines. Despite the fact that this phenomenon...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyDevelopment of Candida auris Short Tandem Repeat Typing and Its Application to a Global Collection of IsolatesCandida auris is an emerging fungal pathogen now recognized as a threat to public health. The pathogen has spread worldwide and causes mainly hospital-associated outbreaks. To track and trace outbreaks and to relate them to new introductions from elsewhere, whole-genome sequencing and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) have been used for molecular typing....
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyUnbiased Metagenomic Sequencing for Pediatric Meningitis in Bangladesh Reveals Neuroinvasive Chikungunya Virus Outbreak and Other Unrealized PathogensGlobally, there are an estimated 10.6 million cases of meningitis and 288,000 deaths every year, with the vast majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, many survivors suffer from long-term neurological sequelae. Most laboratories assay only for common bacterial etiologies using culture and directed PCR, and the majority of meningitis cases lack microbiological diagnoses, impeding institution of evidence-based...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyEvolution and Global Transmission of a Multidrug-Resistant, Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Lineage from the Indian SubcontinentThe Bengal Bay clone (ST772) is a community-associated and multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus lineage first isolated from Bangladesh and India in 2004. In this study, we showed that the Bengal Bay clone emerged from a virulent progenitor circulating on the Indian subcontinent. Its subsequent global transmission was associated with travel or family contact in...