Research Services and Digital Scholarship

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    Occurrence of virulence determinants in vibrio cholerae, vibrio mimicus, vibrio alginolyticus, and vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates from important water resources of Eastern Cape, South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2023) Abioye, Oluwatayo E.; Osunla, Charles A.; Nontongana, Nolonwabo; Okoh, Anthony Ifeanyi
    Background: Virulence determinants are crucial to the risk assessment of pathogens in an environment. This study investigated the presence of eleven key virulence-associated genes in Vibrio cholerae (n=111) and Vibrio mimicus (n=22) and eight virulence determinants in Vibrio alginolyticus (n=65) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (n=17) isolated from six important water resources in Eastern Cape, South Africa, using PCR techniques. The multiple virulence gene indexes (MVGI) for sampling sites and isolates as well as hotspots for potential vibriosis outbreaks among sampling sites were determined statistically based on the comparison of MVGI. Result: The PCR assay showed that all the V. cholerae isolates belong to non-O1/non-O139 serogroups. Of the isolates, Vibrio Cholera (84%), V. mimicus (73%), V. alginolyticus (91%) and V. parahaemolyticus (100%) isolates harboured at least one of the virulence-associated genes investigated. The virulence gene combinations detected in isolates varied at sampling site and across sites. Typical virulence-associated determinants of V. cholerae were detected in V. mimicus while that of V. parahaemolyticus were detected in V. alginolyticus. The isolates with the highest MVGI were recovered from three estuaries (Sunday river, Swartkopps river, buffalo river) and a freshwater resource (Lashinton river). The cumulative MVGI for V. cholerae, V. mimicus, V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus isolates were 0.34, 0.20, 0.45, and 0.40 respectively. The targeted Vibrio spp. in increasing order of the public health risk posed in our study areas based on the MVGI is V. alginolyticus>V. parahaemolyticus>V. cholerae>V. mimicus. Five (sites SR, PA5, PA6, EL4 and EL6) out of the seventeen sampling sites were detected as the hotspots for potential cholera-like infection and vibriosis outbreaks. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that humans having contact with water resources in our study areas are exposed to potential public health risks owing to the detection of virulent determinants in human pathogenic Vibrio spp. recovered from the water resources. The study affirms the relevancy of environmental Vibrio species to the
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    The Potential of Antibiotics and Nanomaterial Combinations as Therapeutic Strategies in the Management of Multidrug-Resistant Infections: A Review
    (MDPI, 2022-11-30) Adeniji, Oluwaseun Ola; Nontongana, Nolonwabo; Okoh, Janet Chiyem; Okoh, Anthony Ifeanyi
    Antibiotic resistance has become a major public health concern around the world. This is exacerbated by the non-discovery of novel drugs, the development of resistance mechanisms in most of the clinical isolates of bacteria, as well as recurring infections, hindering disease treatment efficacy. In vitro data has shown that antibiotic combinations can be effective when microorganisms are resistant to individual drugs. Recently, advances in the direction of combination therapy for the treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections have embraced antibiotic combinations and the use of nanoparticles conjugated with antibiotics. Nanoparticles (NPs) can penetrate the cellular membrane of disease-causing organisms and obstruct essential molecular pathways, showing unique antibacterial mechanisms. Combined with the optimal drugs, NPs have established synergy and may assist in regulating the general threat of emergent bacterial resistance. This review comprises a general overview of antibiotic combinations strategies for the treatment of microbial infections. The potential of antibiotic combinations with NPs as new entrants in the antimicrobial therapy domain is discussed.