Subhaschandra M. Gaddad

Vancomycin resistance among methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from intensive care units of tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad.

Background & objectives: Multidrug resistant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of nosocomial and community acquired infections and is on the rise. The glycopeptide vancomycin has been proposed as the drug of choice for treating such infections. The present study aimed at identifying the vancomycin resistance both phenotypically and genotypically among the MRSA isolates from two tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad, south India. Methods: MRSA were isolated and identified from different clinical samples collected from ICUs of tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad using conventional methods. Antibiogram of the isolates and vancomycin MIC were determined following CLSI guidelines. vanA was amplified by PCR using standard primers. Results: All vancomycin resistant S. aureus (VRSA) isolates were MRSA. The VRSA isolates were positive for vanA gene, except one which was negative. All VRSA had a vancomycin MIC in the range of 16-64 mg/l. Interpretation & conclusions: The increase in vancomycin resistance among MRSA and excessive use of antimicrobial agents have worsened the sensitivity. Larger studies need to be done in various geographical regions of the country to better define the epidemiology, mechanism of vancomycin resistance in S. aureus and its clinical implications.

DEGRADATION OF H-ACID BY FREE AND IMMOBILIZED CELLS OF ALCALIGENES LATUS

Alcaligenes latus, isolated from industrial effluent, was able to grow in mineral salts medium with 50 ppm (0.15 mM) of H-acid as a sole source of carbon. Immobilization of Alcaligenes latus in Ca-alginate and polyurethane foam resulted in cells embedded in the matrices. When free cells and immobilized cells were used for biodegradation studies at concentration ranging from 100 ppm (0.3 mM) to 500 ppm (1.15 mM) degradation rate was enhanced with immobilized cells. Cells immobilized in polyurethane foam showed 100% degradation up to 350 ppm (1.05 mM) and 57% degradation at 500 ppm (1.5 mM). Degradation rate of Ca-alginate immobilized cells was less as compared to that of polyurethane foam immobilized cells. With Ca-alginate immobilized cells 100% degradation was recorded up to 200 ppm (0.6 mM) of H-acid and only 33% degradation was recorded at 500 ppm (1.5 mM) of H-acid. Spectral analysis of the products after H-acid utilization showed that the spent medium did not contain any aromatic compounds indicating H-acid degradation by A. latus.

The effect of temperature on the growth and biochemical activities of Escherichia coli in sewage.

Studies on the role of individual species of bacteria in wastewater treatment methods, especially the effect of environmental factors and enzyme activities, are limited. In the present investigation Escherichia coli, isolated from a stabilisation pond, was grown in sterile sewage at various temperatures, ranging from 10 degrees to 50 degrees C, and its growth and associated biochemical activities were studied. A temperature of 30 degrees C was found to be optimum for the growth, BOD removal, NH(3)-N release and the activities of protease and catalase. E. coli which was once considered to be of little value in wastewater treatment, also accounted for a considerable reduction in BOD and NH(3)-N release. At optimum and lower temperatures, the catalase activity was proportional to the viable cell count of the bacterium. Dissolved oxygen exhibited an inverse relationship with bacterial growth and protease activity was more pronounced during the declining phase of bacterial growth.

Antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus: A multi center study from India.

Chemotherapy and emergence of drug resistance strains of Staphylococcus aureus is receiving serious threats, due to the origin and spread of hospital and community acquired MDR strains. The present study reports the prevalence of antibiotic resistance among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical samples from different cities of India. Antibiotic sensitivity was performed by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for vancomycin and methicillin according to CLSI (2014) guidelines. A total of 212 S. aureus were obtained from different samples such as pus, blood, urine. The antibiogram of these isolates indicated widespread resistance to various groups of antibiotics ranging from a minimum of 10.13% against Phenicols (Chloramphenicol) to a maximum of 97% against Penicillin and 44.8% isolates were MRSA and alarmingly 10.84% were VRSA. Most of the MRSA isolates showed inducible Clindamycin resistance. Widespread prevalence of MDR patterns, increasing incidence of MRSA and VRSA calls for exploration of alternative medicines and new approaches to combat Staphylococcal infections.

Biodegradation of Reactive Red-11 by the Isolate Enterococcus casseliflavus CMGS-1 Strain

Pollutions are the insertion of contaminations, in the natural environments leads to various obstructions, in water pollutants synthetic dye pollution emerging rapidly. In Asia, India may become second major contributor of textile waste water discharging (Verma et al., 2012). The basic structure constituent of dyes are contains n=n bonds, attached to a benzene ring, and various other compounds like SO3H, SO2NH2, NO2 Attached to a aromatic nucleus (Jain et al., 2012). Various physical, chemical methods like reverse osmosis, Fenton’s reagent, chemical flocculation, ion exchange, coagulation, are available but these methods are expensive leads secondary sludge generation and complete degradation cannot be achieved (Jadhav et al., 2012). More than 10000 different kinds of dyes are available in world (Kadam et al., 2011). These dyes are carcinogenic, toxic, and mutagenic in nature. (Shah et al., 2013). The ultimate solution we will get from microorganisms, these are the natural cleaners of the nature. In these direction we selected the potential strain which having the capacity to degrade reactive red-11, confirmed by the FT-IR analysis.