A Multicenter Study of the Revogene C. difficile System for Detection of the Toxin B Gene from Unformed Stool Specimens.

Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of diarrhea in hospitalized U.S. patients and results in over 400,000 cases of C. difficile infection per year. C. difficile infections have mortality rates of 6 to 30% and significantly increase health care costs, because of increased length of stay and increased frequency of readmissions due to recurrences. Efforts to reduce the spread of C. difficile in hospitals have led to the development of rapid sensitive diagnostic methods. A multicenter study was performed to establish the performance characteristics of the Revogene C. difficile test (Meridian Bioscience, Cincinnati, OH, USA) for use in detection of the toxin B (tcdB) gene from toxigenic C. difficile The Revogene instrument is a new molecular platform that uses real-time PCR to detect nucleic acids in up to 8 specimens at a time. A total of 2,461 specimens from symptomatic patients that had been submitted for C. difficile testing were enrolled at 7 sites throughout the United States and Canada for evaluation of the assay. Each stool specimen was tested for the presence of the tcdB gene using the Revogene C. difficile test, and results were compared with those of the reference method, a combination of direct and enriched culture methods. Overall, the Revogene C. difficile test demonstrated a sensitivity of 85.0% (95% confidence interval, 80% to 88%) and a specificity of 97.2% (95% confidence interval, 96% to 98%). The Revogene C. difficile test, using clinical stool specimens for detection of tcdB in C. difficile, demonstrated acceptable sensitivity and specificity, with a short turnaround time.

Evaluation of Copan FecalSwab as Specimen Type for Use in Xpert C. difficile Assay.

Liquid-based microbiology (LBM) devices incorporating flocked swabs and preservation medium ease transport of specimens and improve specimen yield compared to traditional fiber wound swabs; however, the performance of LBM collection devices has not been evaluated in many molecular assays. It is unclear how the differences in matrix and specimen loading with an LBM device will affect test performance compared to traditional collection devices. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of specimens collected in FecalSwab transport medium (Copan Diagnostics, Murrieta, CA) compared to unpreserved stool using the Cepheid Xpert C. difficile assay (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA). Results equivalent to unpreserved stool samples were obtained when 400 µl of FecalSwab-preserved stool was employed in the Xpert assay. The positive and negative percent agreement of specimens inoculated with FecalSwab medium (n = 281) was 97.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 90.9 to 96.4%) and 99.4% (95% CI, 96.4 to 99.9%), respectively, compared to reference results obtained using unpreserved stool. Throughout this study, only four discrepant results occurred when comparing preserved specimens to unpreserved stool specimens in the Xpert C. difficile PCR assay. Post discrepant analysis, using the BD MAX Cdiff assay, the specificity and sensitivity both increased to 100%. The high positive and negative percent agreements observed in this study suggest that stool preserved in FecalSwab media yields equivalent results to using unpreserved stool when tested on the Xpert C. difficile assay, allowing laboratories to adopt this liquid-based microbiology collection device.

Copper Oxide Nanoparticles Impact Several Toxicological Endpoints and Cause Neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Engineered nanoparticles are becoming increasingly incorporated into technology and consumer products. In 2014, over 300 tons of copper oxide nanoparticles were manufactured in the United States. The increased production of nanoparticles raises concerns regarding the potential introduction into the environment or human exposure. Copper oxide nanoparticles commonly release copper ions into solutions, which contribute to their toxicity. We quantified the inhibitory effects of both copper oxide nanoparticles and copper sulfate on C. elegans toxicological endpoints to elucidate their biological effects. Several toxicological endpoints were analyzed in C. elegans, including nematode reproduction, feeding behavior, and average body length. We examined three wild C. elegans isolates together with the Bristol N2 laboratory strain to explore the influence of different genotypic backgrounds on the physiological response to copper challenge. All strains exhibited greater sensitivity to copper oxide nanoparticles compared to copper sulfate, as indicated by reduction of average body length and feeding behavior. Reproduction was significantly reduced only at the highest copper dose, though still more pronounced with copper oxide nanoparticles compared to copper sulfate treatment. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of copper oxide nanoparticles and copper sulfate on neurons, cells with known vulnerability to heavy metal toxicity. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons was observed in up to 10% of the population after copper oxide nanoparticle exposure. Additionally, mutants in the divalent-metal transporters, smf-1 or smf-2, showed increased tolerance to copper exposure, implicating both transporters in copper-induced neurodegeneration. These results highlight the complex nature of CuO nanoparticle toxicity, in which a nanoparticle-specific effect was observed in some traits (average body length, feeding behavior) and a copper ion specific effect was observed for other traits (neurodegeneration, response to stress).

Copper oxide nanoparticles inhibit the metabolic activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are used increasingly in industrial applications and consumer products and thus may pose risk to human and environmental health. The interaction of CuO NPs with complex media and the impact on cell metabolism when exposed to sublethal concentrations are largely unknown. In the present study, the short-term effects of 2 different sized manufactured CuO NPs on metabolic activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were studied. The role of released Cu(2+) during dissolution of NPs in the growth media and the CuO nanostructure were considered. Characterization showed that the 28 nm and 64 nm CuO NPs used in the present study have different primary diameter, similar hydrodynamic diameter, and significantly different concentrations of dissolved Cu(2+) ions in the growth media released from the same initial NP mass. Exposures to CuO NPs or the released Cu(2+) fraction, at doses that do not have impact on cell viability, showed significant inhibition on S. cerevisiae cellular metabolic activity. A greater CuO NP effect on the metabolic activity of S. cerevisiae growth under respiring conditions was observed. Under the tested conditions the observed metabolic inhibition from the NPs was not explained fully by the released Cu ions from the dissolving NPs.

BacMam-enabled LanthaScreen cellular assays for PI3K/Akt pathway compound profiling in disease-relevant cell backgrounds.

The authors recently reported the development and application of multiple LanthaScreen cellular assays to interrogate specific steps within the PI3K/Akt pathway. The importance of this signaling cascade in regulating fundamental aspects of cell growth and survival, as well as in the progression of cancer, underscores the need for portable cell-based assays for compound profiling in multiple disease-relevant cell backgrounds. To meet this need, the authors have now expanded their LanthaScreen assay platform across a variety of cell types using a gene delivery technology known as BacMam. Here, they have demonstrated the successful detection of Akt-dependent phosphorylation of PRAS40 at Thr246 in 10 different cell lines harboring mutations known to activate the PI3K/Akt pathway. In addition, they generated inhibitory profiles of 17 known pathway inhibitors in these same cells to validate the approach of using the BacMam-enabled LanthaScreen cellular assay format to rapidly profile compounds in disease-relevant cell types. Importantly, their results provide a broad illustration of how the genetic alterations that affect PI3K/Akt signaling can also influence the inhibitory profile of a given compound.