PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Burnie

Publications and source records attributed to J Burnie.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

The diagnosis of hepatosplenic candidiasis by DNA analysis of tissue biopsy and serum.

Hepatosplenic candidiasis is traditionally diagnosed by blood culture, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and histological analysis. The limitations of these methods include: low sensitivity (blood culture) and failure to isolate the organism (MRI/histology). This report describes a case of hepatosplenic candidiasis diagnosed by simultaneous polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of liver biopsy and serum. PCR of biopsy and/or serum may offer a sensitive and specific diagnostic test for hepatosplenic candidiasis. Candida species can be identified, which helps guide antifungal chemotherapy, an important aspect in this difficult to treat infection.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Antifungal antibodies: a new approach to the treatment of systemic candidiasis.

Antibody-based therapeutics have come of age, with advances in the genetic engineering of recombinant antibodies allowing application of a growing knowledge of the immunopathology of diseases to the development of novel drugs. For infections such as systemic candidiasis, which still have a mortality of 40 to 50%, antifungal antibodies could provide long-awaited novel therapies for use in combination with antifungal agents. They may also evolve into safe, broad-spectrum agents for prophylaxis in high-risk immunocompromised patients. Mycograb, a human genetically recombinant antibody against heat shock protein 90 (hsp90), has just started trials in patients with systemic candidiasis.

Amphotericin B↗
PubMed2000

Analysis of 42 cases of septicemia caused by an epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: evidence of resistance to vancomycin.

Recent case reports of vancomycin treatment failures in the United States, Japan, and France have prompted a retrospective analysis of 42 cases of septicemia caused by epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain 15 (EMRSA-15), which is the most prevalent epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in the United Kingdom; all cases occurred in a teaching hospital in Manchester, United Kingdom, between 1994 and 1998. Mortality was lowest (4%) in patients with rifampin-susceptible isolates treated with vancomycin and rifampin. It rose to 38% in patients who were treated with both antibiotics but in whom the organism became resistant to rifampin during therapy, and it reached 78% in patients who had rifampin-resistant isolates or in whom rifampin was contraindicated (P<.0001; Fisher exact test, 2-tailed). All isolates were susceptible to vancomycin by conventional laboratory testing, but susceptibility was lost by growth in vancomycin in vitro, becoming resistant at a minimum inhibitory concentration of 8 mg/L. This was associated with accumulation of cell-wall material. The deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprint remained unchanged. This study suggests that rifampin played a key role in the prevention of deaths caused by an epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant S. aureus that readily gave rise to a subpopulation with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Over-expression of Saccharomyces cerevisiae hsp90 enhances the virulence of this yeast in mice.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast of low pathogenic potential, is a rare but well-documented cause of invasive infections in humans. The yeast Candida albicans is a much commoner cause of significant and life-threatening infections. In such infections the heat shock protein hsp90 is an immunodominant antigen associated with protective humoral immunity. In this study it was shown that over-expression of S. cerevisiae hsp90, the amino acid sequence of which shows 84% identity to C. albicans hsp90, significantly increased the virulence of a laboratory strain of S. cerevisiae in mice, both in terms of colony counts in the kidney, liver, and spleen, and in terms of mortality. This is the first direct evidence that hsp90 is a virulence factor.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Antibodies against Candida: potential therapeutics?

For many years, there has been controversy over the role of antibodies in immunity to Candida, but recently specific antibodies to mannoproteins and hsp90 have been shown to be protective against murine candidiasis. Combined with technical advances in antibody engineering, this raises the possibility of harnessing such antibodies into a new range of therapeutics.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Preliminary assessment of a human recombinant antibody fragment to hsp90 in murine invasive candidiasis.

Seroconversion to hsp90 is associated with recovery from systemic candidiasis in humans, and a murine monoclonal antibody to this hsp90 antigen (LKVIRK epitope) was protective in mice. A human recombinant antibody to the same epitope was assessed in acute and chronic models of murine invasive candidiasis. Lethal intravenous challenge with fluconazole-susceptible (strain 4) or fluconazole-resistant (strain 019) Candida albicans, followed 2 h later by a single dose of recombinant antibody, was associated with a statistically significant drop in mortality of > or = 40% (two experiments in BALB/c mice given strain 4; one experiment in CD-1 mice given strain 019) or 23% (BALB/c mice, strain 019). In mice sublethally infected with strain 4, treatment with recombinant antibody was associated with improved renal clearance of infection. Antibody-mediated protection may involve neutralization of the protein-binding properties of circulating candidal hsp90, since LKVIRK strongly bound dexamethasone in vitro.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1994

Controlled study of fluconazole in the prevention of fungal infections in neutropenic patients with haematological malignancies and bone marrow transplant recipients.

The efficacy and safety of oral fluconazole versus a polyene regimen in preventing mycoses in neutropenic patients was compared. Patients with haematological malignancy or bone marrow transplantation received as antifungal prophylaxis either fluconazole 200 mg daily or a regimen consisting of clotrimazole trouches 10 mg twice daily with mycostatin, 500,000 I.U. four times daily, benadryl and cepacol mouthwash. Ninety patients at risk for fungus infection were evaluable. Four of 42 patients (9.5%; confidence interval 2%-23%) on fluconazole and 17 of 48 patients (35.4%; confidence interval 22%-52%) (p < 0.01) on the clotrimazole regimen developed a clinically significant fungal infection, including 3 (7.1%) and 11 (22.9%) patients respectively who had severe fungal infection, mainly pulmonary aspergillosis. Death directly due to a fungal infection within 100 days of the start of prophylaxis occurred in 2 of 42 patients (4.8%) and 9 of 48 patients (18.8%) respectively (p < 0.06). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the chance of survival on fluconazole was statistically greater than for the clotrimazole regimen (p < 0.04). A decrease of candidal colonisation of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts occurred only in patients receiving fluconazole. No significant toxicity occurred. A 200 mg daily dose of fluconazole given to these patients thus appears to be well tolerated and to provide a protective effect against the development of fungal infection and death from severe fungal disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Comparison of PCR fingerprinting, by random amplification of polymorphic DNA, with other molecular typing methods for Candida albicans.

Fingerprinting by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was compared with existing molecular typing systems for Candida albicans. Fifteen isolates were chosen, including three from the same patient; these gave 14 distinct karyotypes by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and 7 different DNA types by EcoRI-generated restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). RAPD with primer I (5'GCTGGTGG3') gave 5 types, whereas primer II (5'GCGCACGG3') yielded 11 types. Combining the results from both primers, all isolates were unique by RAPD with the exception of the three from the same patient. RAPD provided a fast, economical and reproducible means of typing C. albicans with a level of discrimination approaching that of PFGE.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1992

The role of hsp90 in fungal infection.

The immunodominant antigens of many microbial pathogens are heat shock proteins (hsps). In systemic candidal infections, a major target of protective antibody is an epitope shared with human hsp90. Here, Ruth Matthews and James Burnie suggest that fungal hsp90 plays a key pathogenic role in systemic infection by either binding to certain serum proteins, causing them to malfunction, or by mimicking the functional activity of other proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Identification of a gene encoding an HPr-like protein in Aspergillus fumigatus.

The gene encoding a histidine-containing protein (HPr)-like protein was identified in a cDNA library of Aspergillus fumigatus. The predicted amino acid sequence of the fungal HPr showed greater homology with HPr from Gram-positive bacteria than from Gram-negative bacteria. Since other components of the phosphoenolpyruvate: carbohydrate phosphotransferase system have not been identified in eukaryotes, this raises the question of what regulatory function the HPr-like protein might have evolved in this fungus.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Cloning of a DNA sequence encoding a major fragment of the 47 kilodalton stress protein homologue of Candida albicans.

Part of the gene coding for the immunodominant 47 kDa antigen of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans was cloned and sequenced. The predicted amino acid sequence was homologous to stress proteins, the most extensive similarity being with the heat shock protein hsp 90 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The 47 kDa antigen has diagnostic and therapeutic potential and is the first candidal antigen to be cloned and sequenced.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Assessment of DNA fingerprinting for rapid identification of outbreaks of systemic candidiasis.

DNA fingerprinting was assessed as an improved typing system for Candida albicans aimed at speeding the implementation of cross infection control measures in outbreaks of systemic candidiasis. The study was carried out with 45 previously characterised isolates from five different outbreaks and with 96 unrelated isolates from a mixed control population. Sixteen different genotypes were produced. Results were obtainable within days, reproducibility was high, and there was good discrimination among different outbreaks. Compared with existing typing systems DNA fingerprinting provides a robust system that may be used rapidly to identify outbreaks of nosocomial candidiasis in laboratories with no specialist skill in typing C albicans.

Candida albicans↗
PubMed1989

Urokinase: a treatment for relapsing peritonitis due to coagulase-negative staphylococci.

Four consecutive patients with relapsing peritonitis due to coagulase-negative staphylococci have been successfully treated by the addition of urokinase to their treatment regime, having failed to respond to appropriate antibiotic therapy alone. The organisms isolated from each episode of peritonitis in an individual patient were shown to be identical by antibiotic sensitivity, phage typing, slime production and immunoblot analysis. The action of urokinase is unknown but it may act by fibrinolysis, allowing antibiotics access to a source of infection previously protected by fibrin. The technique described is a simple, safe and effective treatment of relapsing peritonitis due to coagulase-negative staphylococci, and its use can markedly reduce the morbidity associated with this infection.

Bacterial Typing Techniques↗
PubMed1988

Candida and AIDS: evidence for protective antibody.

Clinical observation and animal models of candidosis suggest that, although T lymphocytes are important in preventing superficial candidosis, defence against systemic candidosis depends upon humoral immunity. An antibody response to the immunodominant 47 kD antigen of Candida albicans is invariably associated with recovery. The presence of this antibody in patients with chronic mucocutaneous candidosis and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) could account for the rarity of disseminated candidal infection in these conditions. Polyclonal B cell activation may be responsible for the frequency with which this antibody is produced in AIDS. Antibody to the 47 kD antigen could be useful in the treatment and prevention of systemic candidosis, though not in the superficial candidosis of AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗