Occurrence of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolated from environmental samples.

Enterococcus species are present in the microbiota of humans and animals and have also been described in the environment. Among the species, Enterococcus faecium is one of the main pathogens associated with nosocomial infections worldwide. Enterococcus faecium isolates resistant to different classes of antimicrobials have been increasingly reported, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates in environmental sources, which is worrying. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize E. faecium isolates obtained from soil and water samples regarding antimicrobial resistance and virulence determinants. A total 40 E. faecium isolates were recovered from 171 environmental samples. All isolates were classified as MDR, highlighting the resistance to the fluoroquinolones class, linezolid and vancomycin. Furthermore, high-level aminoglycoside resistance and high-level ciprofloxacin resistance were detected in some isolates. Several clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes were found, including vanC1, ermB, ermC, mefAE, tetM, tetL, ant(6')-Ia, ant(4')-Ia, aph(3')-IIIa and aac(6')-Ie-aph(2″)-Ia. Three virulence genes were detected among the MDR E. faecium isolates, such as esp, gelE and ace. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of MDR E. faecium isolates carrying antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes in environmental sources and report for the first time in the world the presence of vanC1-producing E. faecium isolated from soil.

New STs in multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii harbouring ß-lactamases encoding genes isolated from Brazilian soils.

AIMS: We investigated the resistance profile, presence of ß-lactamases encoding genes and the clonal relationships in Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from Brazilian soils. METHODS AND RESULTS: Soil isolates of A. baumannii were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing by disk diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration methods. Different ß-lactamases encoding genes were screened by PCR and the molecular typing of these isolates was performed through the multilocus sequence typing. Non-susceptibility to different antibiotics was found, since environmental isolates were classified as multidrug-resistant. The blaSHV gene was the most prevalent, followed by blaGES. All sequence types (STs) found (ST1584, ST1607, ST1608, ST1609, ST1610, ST1611 and ST1612) were described for the first time in this study. CONCLUSION: The wide variety of new alleles and new STs detected in the present study indicates a divergent population compared to studies that are carried out in the clinical environment and points to an even larger genetic diversity within the species than was anticipated. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: A number of the environmental isolates represented multidrug-resistant strains, a phenotype that has been more commonly reported for clinical isolates of A. baumannii; the detection of several ß-lactamase encoding genes in the investigated isolates is of great concern suggesting that there is a large reservoir of these resistance genes in the environment.

Exercise partially reverses the inhibitory effect of caffeine on liver gluconeogenesis in type 1 diabetic rats with hypoglycemia.

The purpose was to determine the possible effects of exercise and/or caffeine on hypoglycemia and liver gluconeogenesis in diabetic rats. These were divided into four subgroups: (a) intraperitoneal insulin only, (b) exercise bout before insulin, (c) caffeine after insulin, and (d) exercise bout before and caffeine after insulin. The marked glycemic drop 45 min after insulin (0 min = 229.00, 45 min = 75.75) was considerably reduced (p < 0.05) by caffeine or exercise (45 min: exercise = 127.00, caffeine = 104.78). However, this systemic effect was lost (p > 0.05) when they were combined (45 min: exercise + caffeine = 65.44) (Mean, in mg·dL-1). Caffeine alone strongly inhibited liver glucose production from 2 mM lactate 45 min after insulin (without caffeine = 3.05, with caffeine = 0.27; p < 0.05), while exercise + caffeine partially re-established the liver gluconeogenic capacity (exercise + caffeine = 1.61; p < 0.05 relative to the other groups) (Mean, in µmol·g-1). The improved hypoglycemia with caffeine or exercise cannot be explained by their actions on liver gluconeogenesis. As their beneficial effect disappeared when they were combined, such association in diabetic patients should be avoided during the period of hyperinsulinemia due to the risk of severe hypoglycemia.

Treadmill walking differently affects body composition and metabolic parameters of female rats from normal or small litters.

This work assessed whether walking affects bodily development and metabolic parameters of female rats raised in small litters (three pups, group S) or control litters (nine pups, group C). After weaning, some of the rats had five sessions per week of a 30-min treadmill walking (CE and SE), while the others remained sedentary (CS and SS) until the age of 120 days. Exercise caused a reduction of body weight (CS/CE = 1.18), Lee index (CS/CE = 1.04), fasting blood glucose (CS/CE = 1.35), mesenteric (CS/CE = 1.23), and ovarian fat (CS/CE = 1.33) in CE, but only glucose was decreased in SE (SS/SE = 1.16). The diameter of adipocytes decreased to a half in the small-litter groups. Exercise increased subcutaneous (CS/CE = 0.88 and SS/SE = 0.71), but decreased retroperitoneal adipocytes (CS/CE = 1.2 and SS/SE = 1.3). Litter size reduction had little impact on females at the age of 120 days, but the light physical activity seemed insufficient to counteract all the effects of lactational overfeeding. On the other hand, pups from exercised mothers had a decrease in their biometric and glycemic indexes, demonstrating the transgenerational action of regular, although light, exercise.