Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Oct 2015
The Flavonoid Isoliquiritigenin Reduces Lung Inflammation and Mouse Morbidity during Influenza Virus Infection.
The host response to influenza virus infection is characterized by an acute lung inflammatory response in which intense inflammatory cell recruitment, hypercytokinemia, and a high level of oxidative stress are present. The sum of these events contributes to the virus-induced lung damage that leads to high a level of morbidity and mortality in susceptible infected patients. In this context, we identified compounds that can simultaneously reduce the excessive inflammatory response and the viral replication as a strategy to treat influenza virus infection. ⋯ Interestingly, ILG phosphate (ILG-p)-treated mice displayed decreased lung inflammation as depicted by reduced cytokine gene expression and inflammatory cell recruitment. We also demonstrated that influenza virus-specific CD8(+) effector T cell recruitment was reduced up to 60% in the lungs of mice treated with ILG-p (10 mg/kg) compared to that in saline-treated mice. Finally, we showed that administration of ILG-p reduced lung viral titers and morbidity of mice infected with the PR8/H1N1 virus.
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Oct 2015
Use of a Combination Biomarker Algorithm To Identify Medical Intensive Care Unit Patients with Suspected Sepsis at Very Low Likelihood of Bacterial Infection.
Sepsis remains a diagnostic challenge in the intensive care unit (ICU), and the use of biomarkers may help in differentiating bacterial sepsis from other causes of systemic inflammatory syndrome (SIRS). The goal of this study was to assess test characteristics of a number of biomarkers for identifying ICU patients with a very low likelihood of bacterial sepsis. A prospective cohort study was conducted in a medical ICU of a university hospital. ⋯ A number of combinations of PCT and CRP, using various cutoff values and measurement time points, demonstrated high negative predictive values (81.1% to 85.7%) and specificities (63.2% to 79.5%) for diagnosing bacterial sepsis. Combinations of PCT and CRP demonstrated a high ability to discriminate bacterial sepsis from other causes of SIRS in medical ICU patients. Future studies should focus on the use of these algorithms to improve antibiotic use in the ICU setting.
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Oct 2015
Case ReportsEvaluation of Sulfobutylether-β-Cyclodextrin Exposure in a Critically Ill Patient Receiving Intravenous Posaconazole While Undergoing Continuous Venovenous Hemofiltration.
We present a 31-year-old female who had undergone an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation and who was started on intravenous posaconazole for pulmonary mycosis while undergoing continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH). We performed steady-state pharmacokinetic evaluations for both posaconazole and sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBECD). SBECD was effectively removed by CVVH, with observed exposure similar to that for patients with moderate renal impairment. Intravenous posaconazole at standard doses may be utilized in critically ill patients undergoing CVVH without significant risk of SBECD accumulation.
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · Oct 2015
In Vitro Activities of Eight Antifungal Drugs against a Global Collection of Genotyped Exserohilum Isolates.
The in vitro susceptibilities of 24 worldwide Exserohilum isolates belonging to 10 species from human and environmental sources were determined for eight antifungal drugs. The strains were characterized by internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing and amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting. Posaconazole had the lowest geometric mean MIC (0.16 μg/ml), followed by micafungin (0.21 μg/ml), amphotericin B (0.24 μg/ml), itraconazole (0.33 μg/ml), voriconazole (0.8 μg/ml), caspofungin (1.05 μg/ml), isavuconazole (1.38 μg/ml), and fluconazole (15.6 μg/ml).