Ruthenium(II) phosphine/diimine/picolinate complexes: Inorganic compounds as agents against tuberculosis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Rapid detection of resistance to pyrazinamide in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using the resazurin microtitre assay

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Synthesis and Anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis Evaluation of Aza-Stilbene Derivatives

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Spoligotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates from patients residents of 11 states of Brazil

One of the high tuberculosis (TB) incidence countries in the world, Brazil is characterized by considerable differences in TB incidence on regional and state level. In the present study, we describe Brazilian spoligotypes of 1991 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) clinical isolates from patients residents of 11 states from different regions of the country, diagnosed between 1996 and 2005. By performing spoligotyping on a large number of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, one of the main objectives of this study was to determine the major genotype families causing TB in Brazil and to verify the region-associated genotype distribution. We observed a total of 577 distinct spoligopatterns, 12.6% of these corresponded to orphan patterns while 87.4% belonged to 326 shared-types (SITs). Among the latter, 86 SITs (isolated from 178 patients) had been observed for the first time in this study, the most frequent being SIT2517 which belonged to the T3-ETH lineage and was exclusively found among patients residents of Belem, the capital of the state of Para (n = 8 isolates). Irrespective of shared-type labeling, a total of 19.5% strains were unique (unclustered) in our study as opposed to 80.5% clustered isolates (189 clusters, size range from 2 to 205 isolates). The three largest clusters were SIT42 of the Latin-America & Mediterranean (LAM) 9 clade (10.3%), SIT53 of the T clade (7.6%), and SIT50 of the Haarlem clade (5.4%). The predominant MTC lineages in Brazil in decreasing order belonged to the LAM (46%); the ill-defined T (18.6%); the Haarlem (12.2%), the X (4.7%), the S (1.9%), and the East African Indian (EAI) (0.85%) families. The rest of clades grouped together as Mycobacterium africanum, Mycobacterium bovis, Beijing, Central Asian (CAS), and the Manu types, represented less than 1% of the strains. Finally, about 15% of the isolates showed spoligotype signatures that were not yet classified among well-defined lineages. In conclusion, we provide hereby a first insight into the population structure of MTC isolates in Brazil, showing the predominance of both LAM and T family and the existence of region-associated genotypes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the quality of dna extracted by two techniques from Mycobacterium tuberculosis for fast molecular identification and genotyping

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Comparison of resazurin microtiter assay performance and BACTEC MGIT 960 in the susceptibility testing of Brazilian clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to four first-line drugs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Rhodococcus equi isolation from sputum of patients with suspected tuberculosis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from alow-endemic setting in northwestern state of Paraná in Southern Brazil

The purpose of this study was to provide information about the genetic diversity and prevalent genotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a low-endemic setting in northwestern state of Paraná in Southern Brazil. We employed spoligotyping and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) techniques to genotype M. tuberculosisisolates from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). The 93 isolates analyzed by spoligotyping were divided into 36 different patterns, 30 of which were described in the SITVIT database. Latin American and Mediterranean, Haarlem and T families were responsible for 26.9%, 17.2% and 11.8% of TB cases, respectively. From the 84 isolates analyzed by MIRU-VNTR, 58 shared a unique pattern and the remaining 26 belonged to nine clusters. The MIRU loci 40, 23, 10 and 16 were the most discriminatory. A combination of MIRU-VNTR and spoligotyping resulted in 85.7% discriminatory power (Hunter-Gaston index = 0.995). Thus, combining spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR typing proved to be most useful for epidemiological study in this low-endemic setting in Southern Brazil. The current study demonstrated that there is significant diversity in circulating strains in the city of Maringá and the surrounding regions, with no single genotype of M. tuberculosispredominating.

Plasmid-based controls to detect rpoB mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by quantitative polymerase chain reaction-high-resolution melting

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Evaluation of anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis activity of Campomanesia adamantium (Myrtaceae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The Poisson-exponential regression model under different latent activation schemes

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Tuberculose ativa em pacientes cirúrgicos com baciloscopia negativa no pré-operatório

OBJETIVO: Verificar a proporção de pacientes com baciloscopia negativa no pré-operatório e que apresentaram TB ativa na peça cirúrgica. MÉTODOS: Estudo retrospectivo de pacientes com diagnóstico histopatológico de TB ativa ou sequelar e operados entre os anos de 2003 e 2006 em um hospital universitário. Foram pesquisados antecedentes e aspectos clínicos relativos à doença, pesquisa de bacilos álcool-ácido resistentes (BAAR), tipo de cirurgia realizada e exame histopatológico da peça cirúrgica. RESULTADOS: Foram incluídos 43 pacientes, com média de idade de 44 ± 19 anos, sendo 27 do sexo masculino. Apresentavam história prévia de TB com tratamento adequado 28 pacientes, e 15 não referiam antecedentes para TB. O principal motivo da procura pelo serviço foi infecção de repetição, seguida por achados em exames de imagem. Dos 43 pacientes, foi pesquisado BAAR no pré-operatório em 35: 32 apresentaram resultados negativos e 3, resultados positivos. Dos 35 pacientes pesquisados, 26 apresentavam diagnóstico histopatológico de TB ativa e 9 de TB sequelar na peça cirúrgica; os outros 8 também foram diagnosticados com TB sequelar. A proporção de TB ativa em doentes com baciloscopia negativa foi de 72% (23/32), e o de baciloscopia negativa em TB ativa foi de 88% (23/26), sendo a pesquisa de BAAR positiva somente em 11,5% (3/26). CONCLUSÕES: A baciloscopia direta tem rendimento muito baixo, e muitos pacientes mesmo já tratados podem permanecer com TB em atividade com baciloscopia negativa. A TB ativa pode ser confundida com infecções secundárias ou com câncer.

DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients undergoing anti-tuberculosis treatment

Tuberculosis (TB), a chronic infectious disease, is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Expression of iNOS and consequent production of NO during the inflammatory process is an important defense mechanism against TB bacteria. We have tested whether pulmonary TB patients undergoing anti-tuberculosis treatment present DNA damage, and whether this damage is related to oxidative stress, by evaluating total hydrophilic antioxidant capacity and iNOS expression. DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients and healthy tuberculin test (PPD) positive controls was evaluated by single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay), and iNOS expression was measured by qPCR. We also evaluated total hydrophilic antioxidant capacity in plasma from patients and controls. Compared to controls, pulmonary TB patients under treatment presented increased DNA damage, which diminished during treatment. Also, the antioxidant capacity of these individuals was increased at the start of treatment, and reduced during treatment. TB patients showed lower iNOS expression, but expression tended to increase during treatment. Our results indicate that pulmonary TB patients under anti-TB treatment exhibit elevated DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This damage was not related to nitric oxide but may be due to other free radicals. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pulmonary tuberculosis: Hematology, serum biochemistry and the relation with the disease duration

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between hematological and biochemical parameters and tuberculosis process activity time according to clinical complaint duration. It was a retrospective study analyzing medical records from 80 pulmonary tuberculosis patients at Botucatu Medical School University Hospital ( Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil), who were divided into 2 groups according to clinical complaint duration: Group 1 ( G1) - up to three months; Group 2 ( G2) - over three months. Parameters included: age, gender, bacilloscopy, erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( ESR), platelet count, alpha1-globulin, alpha2-globulin, gamma globulin, mucoprotein, alpha1-acid glycoprotein values, and the presence of risk factors such as smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, contact with tuberculosis carriers, and previous treatment. Groups were compared by calculating t and p, and Chi-square (X-2) and p. Comparisons revealed a tendency towards smoking with a higher frequency of smokers in G1 ( 0.05< p< 0.10). G1 also tended to present greater platelet values than G2 ( 0.05< p< 0.10) and presented significantly higher ESR values than G2 ( p< 0.05). Other factors did not show any significantly different behavior between groups ( p> 0.05). A correlation was found between ESR, platelet count, smoking and less than three months clinical duration.