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Biomedical subjects

Shuhei Fujimoto

Publications and source records attributed to Shuhei Fujimoto.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Potency of carbapenems for the prevention of carbapenem-resistant mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: the high potency of a new carbapenem doripenem.

The potencies of the carbapenems; doripenem (DRPM), meropenem (MEPM) and imipenem (IPM) in preventing the emergence of carbapenem-resistant mutants were examined in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The carbapenems predominantly selected carbapenem-resistant mutants or carbapenem mutants with reduced susceptibilities that were specifically resistant to carbapenems and had arisen as a result of the reduced level of expression of the outer membrane protein with a molecular weight of about 48,000 (OprD). The potency of carbapenems in preventing the growth of the mutants differed for DRPM, MEPM and IPM. The isolation frequency of the mutant was examined on agar plates containing each of the carbapenems at a concentration of 1/2 or 1/4 MIC of each carbapenem for that mutant. Mutants were not selected on agar containing DRPM at a frequency of greater than 10(-9) per cell per generation, whereas mutants of each strain were selected on agar containing MEPM or IPM at frequencies of 10(-7) to 10(-9) per cell per generation. The drug concentrations and the drug concentration range for the selective increase of carbapenem resistant mutants in the broth culture containing each carbapenem differed for each carbapenem. DRPM exhibited both the lowest drug concentration and the narrowest range of drug concentration for selection of the carbapenem-resistant mutants. The results shown in this report indicated that DRPM exhibited the greatest ability to prevent the emergence of the mutant.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2005

Drug resistance of Enterococcus faecium clinical isolates and the conjugative transfer of gentamicin and erythromycin resistance traits.

Drug resistance and the transferability of resistance were examined in 218 Enterococcus faecium clinical isolates obtained from in-patients of a Japanese university hospital between 1990 and 1999. One hundred and sixty one isolates (73.9%) were drug-resistant and 127 (58.2%) isolates were resistant to two or more drugs. Vancomycin resistant E. faecium (VRE) was not isolated. The transferability of drug-resistance to an E. faecium strain was examined by broth or filter mating. Six (12.5%) of the 48 gentamicin resistance traits, and fifty (50%) of the 101 erythromycin resistance traits were transferred by filter mating. The gentamicin resistance traits of five isolates and the erythromycin resistance traits of four isolates were transferred to the recipient strains by both broth mating and filter mating at a frequency of about 10(-6) and 10(-5) per donor cell, respectively. The five gentamicin resistant strains were shown to harbor pMG1-like plasmids on the basis of their Southern hybridization with pMG1 (65.1 kbp, Gm(r)), which transfers efficiently between enterococci by broth mating. Each of the four erythromycin resistant transconjugants obtained by broth mating harbored a large conjugative plasmid (more than 100 kbp). The plasmids showed no homology with well-characterized enterococcal conjugative plasmids such as pAD1, pPD1, pAM(beta)1, pIP501 and pMG1 by Southern hybridization. Of the erythromycin resistance traits that transferred only by filter mating, it was found that the erythromycin resistance trait was conferred by a 47-kbp transposable element that transferred from the chromosome of the donor strain to different sites within the pheromone responsive plasmid pAD1 (60 kbp) of the recipient strain, suggesting that the erythromycin resistance trait was encoded on a conjugative transposon, which was named Tn950.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2004

Overexpression of autocrine motility factor in metastatic tumor cells: possible association with augmented expression of KIF3A and GDI-beta.

Autocrine motility factor (AMF), which is identical to phosphohexose isomerase (PHI)/glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI), a ubiquitous enzyme essential for glycolysis, neuroleukin (NLK), a neurotrophic growth factor, and maturation factor (MF) mediating the differentiation of human myeloid cells, enhances the motility and metastatic ability of tumor cells. AMF/PHI activity is elevated in the serum or urine in patients with malignant tumors. Here, we constructed an amf/phi/nlk/mf gene using adenovirus vector and transfected into two tumor cell lines. Overexpression of AMF/PHI/NLK/MF enhanced AMF secretion into the culture media in both tumor cell lines. However, upregulation of motility and metastatic ability was found only in metastatic fibrosarcoma cells expressing an AMF receptor, gp78, and was not found in gp78-undetectable osteosarcoma cells. Thus, not only serum AMF activity but also gp78-expression in tumor cells may be required for metastasis-related motility induction. With the use of microarray analyses, we detected two augmented genes, rho GDP dissociation inhibitor beta and kinesin motor 3A, as well as AMF itself. The RNA message and protein expression of these two molecules was confirmed to be upregulated, suggesting a possible association with AMF-induced signaling for cell motility and metastasis.

Adenoviridae↗
PubMed2004

Replication of Enterococcus faecalis pheromone-responding plasmid pAD1: location of the minimal replicon and oriV site and RepA involvement in initiation of replication.

The hemolysin-determining plasmid pAD1 is a member of a widely disseminated family of highly conjugative elements commonly present in clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecalis. The determinants repA, repB, and repC, as well as adjacent iteron sequences, are believed to play important roles in pAD1 replication and maintenance. The repA gene encodes an initiator protein, whereas repB and repC encode proteins related to stability and copy number. The present study focuses specifically on repA and identifies a replication origin (oriV) within a central region of the repA determinant. A small segment of repA carrying oriV was able to support replication in cis of a plasmid vector otherwise unable to replicate, if an intact RepA was supplied in trans. We demonstrate that under conditions in which RepA is expressed from an artificial promoter, a segment of DNA carrying only repA is sufficient for stable replication in E. faecalis. We also show that RepA binds specifically to oriV DNA at several sites containing inverted repeat sequences (i.e., IR-1) and nonspecifically to single-stranded DNA, and related genetic analyses confirm that these sequences play an important role in replication. Finally, we reveal a relationship between the internal structure of RepA and its ability to recognize oriV. An in-frame deletion within repA resulting in loss of 105 nucleotides, including at least part of oriV, did not eliminate the ability of the altered RepA protein to initiate replication using an intact origin provided in trans. The relationship of RepA to other known initiator proteins is also discussed.

Amino Acid Sequence↗