• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2020

Background: Use of appropriate antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia is integral in patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). Although it is recommended that empirical treatment regimens should be based on the local distribution of pathogens in patients with suspected hospital-acquired pneumonia, few studies observe patients admitted to ICUs with nursing home-acquired pneumonia (NHAP). We found factors associated with the use of inappropriate antibiotics in patients with pneumonia admitted to the ICU via the emergency room (ER). Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 83 pneumonia patients with confirmed causative bacteria admitted to ICUs via ER March 2015-May 2017. We compared clinical parameters, between patients who received appropriate or inappropriate antibiotics using the Mann-Whitney U, Pearson's chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests. We investigated independent factors associated with inappropriate antibiotic use in patients using multivariate logistic regression. Results: Among 83 patients, 30 patients (36.1%) received inappropriate antibiotics. NHAP patients were more frequently treated with inappropriate antibiotics than with appropriate antibiotics (47.2% vs. 96.7%, p<0.001). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was more frequently isolated from individuals in the inappropriate antibiotics-treated group than in the appropriate antibiotics-treated group (7.5% vs. 70.0%, p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, NHAP was independently associated with the use of inappropriate antibiotics in patients with pneumonia admitted to the ICU via ER. Conclusion: NHAP is a risk factor associated with the use of inappropriate antibiotics in patients with pneumonia admitted to the ICU via the ER.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.788-793
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• 2012

High concentration of antibiotics has been used to treat the outbreak of edwardsiellosis caused by Edwardsiella tarda in aquaculture. However, not all of the bacteria have been killed with high concentrations of antibiotics treatment by the formation of persister cells with a dormant state. The main objective of this study was to kill persister cell using antibiotics with the addition of natural plant compounds. Antibiotics used in this study consist of 100 mg/ml florfenicol and 100 mg/ml amoxicillin. Ten natural plant compounds with persister cell inhibitor activity to E. coli were obtained from Protein Engineering and Systems Biology Lab. of Sungkyunkwan University. The persister cell inhibition activities of those natural plant compounds were evaluated in test tube. Concentrations of the antibiotics were in the ranges of 25~200 ${\mu}g/ml$. The persister cell formation was observed after 16 hours of culture. Persister cells were killed by antibiotics with natural plant compounds. Among ten natural plant compounds, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Mallotus japonicus, and Orixa japonica showed persister cell formation inhibition activities. The optimal concentrations of G. pentaphyllum, M. japonicus, and O. japonica for the inhibitor of persister cell formation were 100 ${\mu}g/ml$, 100 ${\mu}g/ml$, and 200 ${\mu}g/ml$, respectively. In vivo study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the antibiotics with natural plant compounds using aquacultural fish, olive flounder, as test animals. G. pentaphyllum, M. japonicus, and O. japonica of 30 ${\mu}g/ml$, 10 ${\mu}g/ml$, and 10 ${\mu}g/ml$ with antibiotics reduced cumulative mortalities, showing the effectiveness of persister cell inhibition.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.319-326
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• 2016

Colistin is a last resort antimicrobial agent against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria. This study was conducted to develop an analytical method to determine colistin in fish and shrimp. The analytes were confirmed and quantified via liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in the positive ion mode using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The sample was extracted with acidified 5% methanol (containing 0.5% formic acid). Then, solid phase extraction (SPE) was used for cleanup. Matrix-matched calibration curves were linear over the calibration ranges (0.05-1.2 mg/kg) for all the analytes into blank sample with $r^2$ > 0.99. All the values fulfilled the criteria requested by the Codex guidelines. Average recoveries ranged from 85.9% to 107.9%. The repeatability of measurements, expressed as the coefficient of variation (CV, %), was less than 15%. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.02 mg/kg, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 0.05 mg/kg. This improved method showed higher accuracy and acceptable sensitivity to meet the CAC guideline requirements and is applicable for the analysis of residual colistin (A+B) in fish and shrimp.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.88-95
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• 1992

The genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMS) could be released accidentally or ii)rexperimental purposes, as the genetic engineering, technique ha:. become very popular inany laboratories of biological sciences. But there have been littlt: informations on transkrbehavior of the genetically ~nodified genes in the natural en\ironmentx. In this stutly.antibiotic resistant bacteria were isolated from nat.ural waters. and then GEM strains wereconstructed i'rom the natural isolate (NI) by ~noclification oi' the Km' plasmitl. Thetransferability of the plasmids in the GEM and NI strains were examinetl by con-jugationin Luria-Bertani broth :it 30$^{\circ}$C. Also the cff'ccts 01' mating strain and pH on their transferfrequency and rearrangement of the plasmids in tl-~ec o~ijugantsM ere comp:irati\ely stuclictl.I'hc transkr frequency of Km' plasmid in donor of GEM and N1 strains wah similar a.;about 10 ' when co~ljugation was conducted wit11 M'I'I strain is recipient at pH 7. butthat of 1)KCOOI was lowered to 1.2X 10 '. And when the lab. stlain was uhccl as recipient.the transfer tendency of the plasmid was about same in both (;EM and NI strains usedas donor. All thc tionor 5trains. except for I)KC601. showecl the Ilighcs~ frequency of about10 ' at pH 7 and the frequcncics were lowered at both pH 5 and 9. Hut the mocliliedKm' plasmid in the cloned strain of DKC601 was transferred hy very low frequency of10 "at pH 5 ant1 7 comparing to other GEM strains. especiall! any co~~.jugantws ere notobtained at pH 4 and 9 even after conjugation for 6 hours. Rearrangement of the plasmidstranskrred into the lab. strain was not found in the conjugants. I\ulcornerut a lot of rearrangclncntwas ohservecl nlhen they were transferred into the NI strain. Such a rearrangement wasmore severe when donor was GEM strain rather then NI strain Hut such ;r phenomenonwas less affected by p!-l values.r phenomenon was less affected by p!-l values.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2007

The DY1 strain of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria was isolated from the soil sample collected from Daeam mountain, Korea. The culture filtrate of DY1 strain showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity on various pathogenic and food poisoning enteric bacterial species tested in vitro. It showed significant growth-inhibitory effect on Salmonella enterica sp., Shigella sp., pathogenic Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahemolyticus, and Yersinia enterocolitica. For the identification of the DY1 strain, morphological, biochemical and molecular phylogenetic approaches were performed. The DY1 strain was found to be a member of the genus Paenibacillus on the basis of morphological and biochemical analyses. The 16S rDNA of DY1 showed the highest pairwise identity with Paenibacillus polymyxa with 99.79% (1,413 bp/1,416 bp). The antimicrobial entity from DY1 looked different from preciously reported ones and seems to have a great potential to be further studied as a candidate of new antibiotics to control multi-drug resistant pathogens.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.675-681
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• 1994

[ $F_0$ ]-values of the canned tuna in cottonseed oil (CTCO) were investigated under different sterilizing conditions to optimize the energy consumption and microbiological safety. The $F_0$-values were measured using a microcomputer based technique. The exact cold point was not the volumetric center of the cans, and it was located in the center of meat mass in can which had ca. $6\%$ of head space. Location of the test cans in retort showed no remarkable influence on the $F_0$-values when the cans were jumble loaded. The process time before sterilization should be shortened as much as possible to prevent the contamination of microorganisms. Thermophilic spore forming bacteria found from raw and precooked tuna were Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus pasteurii, and the most heat resistant was Bacillus subtilis. The rational $F_0$-value for the CTCO obtained from the preservation test was regarded as 6min.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.231-237
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• 2004

Oxycarotenoids are oxygenated carotenoids that perform critical roles in plants. $\beta$-Carotene hydroxylase adds hydroxyl groups to the $\beta$-rings of carotenes and has been cloned from several bacteria and plants including Arabidopsis. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of $\beta$-carotene hydroxylase gene (Chyb) on the oxycarotenoids biosynthesis in the transgenic Arabidopsis. Construct of pGCHYB containing Chyb was established onto Gateway vector system (pENTR3C gateway vector and pH2GW7 destination vector). Arabidopsis thaliana (cv. Columbia) was transformed with Agrobacterium tumerfacience GV3101 harboring pGCHYB construct driven by 35S promoter and hygromycin resistant gene. Seven hundred bases paired PCR products, indicating the presence of Chyb gene, were found in the transformants by PCR analysis using Chyb primers. Hygromycin resistance assay showed that transgenes were stably inherited to next generation. The overexpression of the Chyb gene resulted in the decrease carotenoid content. Especially, astaxanthin unusual oxycarotenoid in wild type Arabidopsis was detected in the transgenic plants. This means that decreased carotenoids might be converted into astaxanthin metabolism with the aid of silent gene in the host.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.447-453
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• 1989

In order to study the transfer of antibiotics resistance genes of the genetically cloned bacteria in water environments, DK1 strain, which is resistant to kanamycin (Km), chloramphenicol (Cm), streptomycin (Sm), and sulfadiazine (Su), was selected from the Gram-negative bacterial isolates from wastewater. One of 4 plasmids harboured in the DK1 strain was found to possess Km$^{${\gamma}$}$Cm$^{${\gamma}$}$ gene and be about 68 kb in size, and it was designated as pDK101. The plasmid of pDK101 was also found to have 16, 32, and 6 restriction sites for EcoRI. .PstI, and SalI, respectively. From the digestion fragments of pDK101 plasmid and pKT230 used as a vector by EcoRI restriction endonuclease, pDT309 and pDT529 were constructed as chimeric plasmids which possess Km$^{${\gamma}$}$Cm$^{${\gamma}$}$ gene and are 30.9 and 52.9 kb in size, respectively. When the chimeric plasmids were trasformed into E. coli C600 or E. coli HB101, transformants of DKC601, DKC602, DKH102, and DKH103 were obtained as cloned bacterial cells. The Km$^{${\gamma}$}$Cm$^{${\gamma}$}$ genes were well expressed in those cloned cells and the chimeric plasmids were clearly detected in the cloned cells of DKC601 and DKH103.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: Genetically modified(GM) trigonal cactus(Hylocereus trigonus Saff.) contained a coat protein gene of cactus virus X (CVX), which conferred resistance to the virus, phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (bar) gene, which conferred herbicide resistance, and a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter (CaMV 35S). This study was conducted to evaluate the possible impact of GM trigonal cactus cultivation on the soil microbial community. METHODS AND RESULTS: Microorganisms were isolated from the rhizosphere of GM and non-GM trigonal cactus cultivation soils. The total numbers of bacteria, and actinomycete in the rhizosphere soils cultivated GM and non-GM trigonal cactus were similar to each other, and there was no significant difference. Dominant bacterial phyla in the rhizosphere soils cultivated with GM and non-GM trigonal cactus were Proteobacteria, Uncultured archaeon, and Uncultured bacterium. The denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles show a similar patterns, significant difference was not observed in each other. DNA was isolated from soil cultivated GM and non-GM trigonal cactus, we analyzed the persistence of the inserted gene by PCR. Amplification of the inserted genes was not observed in the soil DNA, which was collected after harvest. CONCLUSION(S): This result suggests that the GM trigonal cactus cultivation does not change significantly the microbial community.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2006

Seventy-five streptococci were isolated from diseased olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus in Jeju. Their drug susceptibility and transferable multiple drug resistance were characterized. All isolates were resistant to flumequine (AR) and oxolinic acid (OA) and 26 isolates (34.7%) showed 4～6 multiple resistance of ampicillin (ABPC), AR, doxycycline (DOXY), erythromycin (EM), norfloxacin(NOR), OA and oxytetracycline (OTC) in various combinations. pST9 of a transferable R plasmid was detected from a multiple drug resistance strain, Streptococcus sp., ST9 originated from diseased flounder in Jeju, previously. We performed DNA hybridization to know the distribution of plasmid with the same DNA structure as pST9 in streptococci. Thirteen out of 60 isolates analyzed were positive in colony DNA hybridization and the part of bacteria isolated from raw meal was also hybridized with pST9. It suggested that raw meal is one of the origin of the resistance plasmid and R plasmid with DNA structure differing from pST9 is also involving in multiple drug resistance of the streptococci. In conjugation experiment, we found transferable R plasmid carrying OTC, DOXY and/or EM resistance determinant in the 13 resistance strains. all of the streptococci carrying the transferable R plasmid were similar in RAPD patterns. However, pST -type R plasmid was rare in S. iniae most frequently appearing in flounder farm.