maltodextrin and Bacterial-Infections

Prostatitis is a recurrent urinary infection in males and is often difficult to cure. The aim of the study was to examine whether anti-inflammatory effects of enhanced drainage of prostatic secretions, obtained through two months treatment with a proteolytic enzyme mucoactive (PEM) compound (Serrazyme and other constituents), influenced qualitative or quantitative expressions of bacterial growth in seminal cultures.. 450 patients with prostatitis syndromes were randomized either to PEM therapy (intervention group) or to no treatment group. All patients were followed at the end of a 2-month PEM continuous treatment period (T2) and further two months after withdrawal (T4).. After treatment, 15 out of 107 (14.1%) patients with Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis (CBP) showed negative seminal cultures, while in patients with cat NIH-IIIA prostatitis seminal cultures became positive in 33.3% cases with low bacteriospermia. After two months from withdrawal, although among CBP patients the total number of isolates and colony forming units (CFU) counts showed not significant changes compared to matched-values observed at T2, microbial parameters varied significantly among inflammatory prostatitis patients.. The results of the present study showed that 2 months of treatment with PEM, decreasing bacterial adherence and inflammatory prostatitis, reveals a subgroup of apparent inflammation associated with infection that microbial biofilms likely mask in inflammatory prostatitis patients.

Topics: Adult; Bacteria; Bacterial Adhesion; Bacterial Infections; Biofilms; Boswellia; Chronic Disease; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Inflammation; Male; Pinus; Polysaccharides; Prostatitis; Semen; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Young Adult

Bacterial infections are one of the most serious health risks worldwide, and their rapid diagnosis remains a major challenge in clinic. To enhance the relaxivity and bacterial specificity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, here, a kind of gadolinium-based nanoparticles (NPs) of impressive biocompatibility is constructed as a contrast agent for maltodextrin-mediated bacteria-targeted diagnosis. To realize this, positively charged ultrasmall gadolinium oxide (Gd

Topics: Adsorption; Bacterial Infections; Biocompatible Materials; Contrast Media; Escherichia coli; Gadolinium; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Materials Testing; Particle Size; Polysaccharides; Staphylococcus aureus

Topics: Bacterial Infections; Escherichia coli; Humans; Myositis; Polysaccharides

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Topics: Animals; Bacterial Infections; Biological Transport; Membrane Transport Proteins; Mice; Mice, Nude; Polysaccharides; Positron-Emission Tomography; Radioactive Tracers; Trisaccharides; Wound Infection

The diagnosis of bacterial infections remains a major challenge in medicine. Although numerous contrast agents have been developed to image bacteria, their clinical impact has been minimal because they are unable to detect small numbers of bacteria in vivo, and cannot distinguish infections from other pathologies such as cancer and inflammation. Here, we present a family of contrast agents, termed maltodextrin-based imaging probes (MDPs), which can detect bacteria in vivo with a sensitivity two orders of magnitude higher than previously reported, and can detect bacteria using a bacteria-specific mechanism that is independent of host response and secondary pathologies. MDPs are composed of a fluorescent dye conjugated to maltohexaose, and are rapidly internalized through the bacteria-specific maltodextrin transport pathway, endowing the MDPs with a unique combination of high sensitivity and specificity for bacteria. Here, we show that MDPs selectively accumulate within bacteria at millimolar concentrations, and are a thousand-fold more specific for bacteria than mammalian cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MDPs can image as few as 10(5) colony-forming units in vivo and can discriminate between active bacteria and inflammation induced by either lipopolysaccharides or metabolically inactive bacteria.

Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Bacterial Infections; Biofilms; Contrast Media; Polysaccharides; Rats; Sensitivity and Specificity; Stem Cells