Publications by authors named "Garth D Ehrlich"

Alterations to the community structure and function of the microbiome are associated with changes to host physiology, including immune responses. However, the contribution of microbe-derived RNAs carried by outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) to host immune responses remain unclear. This study investigated the role of OMVs and OMV-associated small RNA (sRNA) species from pathogenic and commensal (ETBF and NTBF respectively) in eliciting different immune responses from intestinal epithelial cells.

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Unlabelled: The family includes many obligate parasitic bacterial species etiologically associated with a myriad of zoonotic borrelioses, including Lyme disease and vector-borne relapsing fevers. infections are difficult to detect by both direct and indirect methods, often leading to delayed and missed diagnoses. Efforts to improve diagnostics center around the development of molecular diagnostics (MDx), but due to deep tissue sequestration and the lack of persistent bacteremias, even MDx assays suffer from a lack of sensitivity.

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The discovery of profound differences in the brain microbiota of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and age-matched controls (AMCs) raised questions of postmortem contamination and bacterial transport processes which could be informed by microspatial heterogeneities. We performed semiquantitative species-specific bacterial analyses on multiple micro biopsies from each of the 30 brain specimens (AD and controls). We trimmed ~1 mm of each specimen's edges for surface contaminants and made multiple sterile biopsy punches of the resultant core of each specimen.

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Background: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) affects 20-50% of reproductive-age female patients annually, arising when opportunistic pathogens outcompete healthy vaginal flora. Many patients fail to resolve symptoms with a course of metronidazole, the current first-line treatment for BV. Our study was designed to identify genomic variation associated with metronidazole resistance among strains of Gardnerella vaginalis spp.

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Sensory functions of organs of the head and neck allow humans to interact with the environment and establish social bonds. With aging, smell, taste, vision, and hearing decline. Evidence suggests that accelerated impairment in sensory abilities can reflect a shift from healthy to pathological aging, including the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurological disorders.

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Background: The family includes many obligate parasitic bacterial species which are etiologically associated with a myriad of zoonotic borrelioses including Lyme disease and vector-borne relapsing fevers. Infections by the are difficult to detect by both direct and indirect methods, often leading to delayed and missed diagnoses. Efforts to improve diagnoses center around the development of molecular diagnostics (MDx), but due to deep tissue sequestration of the causative spirochaetes and the lack of persistent bacteremias, even MDx assays suffer from a lack of sensitivity.

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The causative agent of Lyme disease (LD), , binds factor H (FH) and other complement regulatory proteins to its surface. B31 (type strain) encodes five FH-binding proteins (FHBPs): CspZ, CspA, and the OspE paralogs OspE, OspE, and OspE. This study assessed potential correlations between the production of individual FHBPs, FH-binding ability, and serum resistance using a panel of infectious clonal populations recovered from dogs.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study examined tissue samples to see if integrated HBV DNA (iDNA) was the main factor behind ongoing pre-S expression in GGHs after antiviral therapy, finding detectable iDNA and specific genetic integrations in many patients.
  • * Long-read sequencing confirmed the presence of varying pre-S deletions across different tissues, suggesting that these deletions may occur after iDNA integration, highlighting the complexity of HBV's effects on liver cells.
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Background: The critical issues of sustained memory immunity following ebolavirus disease among long-term survivors are still unclear.

Methods: Here, we examine virus-specific immune and inflammatory responses following in vitro challengd in 12 Sudan virus (SUDV) long-term survivors from Uganda's 2000-2001 Gulu outbreak, 15 years after recovery. Total RNA from isolated SUDV-stimulated and unstimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells was extracted and analyzed.

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Article Synopsis
  • The objective of the review was to summarize advancements in otitis media (OM) research from 2019 to 2023, focusing on aspects like immunology, inflammation, environmental impacts, and host-pathogen interactions.
  • Data was gathered from the PubMed database, with literature reviewed by panel members before discussions at a symposium in June 2023.
  • Key findings include new insights on susceptibility to OM due to environmental factors, genetic links, immune system roles, and innovative research areas such as bacterial adaptations and gene expression related to OM.
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Background: Over the last few decades, a growing body of evidence has suggested a role for various infectious agents in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Despite diverse pathogens (virus, bacteria, fungi) being detected in AD subjects' brains, research has focused on individual pathogens and only a few studies investigated the hypothesis of a bacterial brain microbiome. We profiled the bacterial communities present in non-demented controls and AD subjects' brains.

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Biofouling is a major problem in all natural and artificial settings where solid surfaces meet liquids in the presence of living microorganisms. Microbes attach to the surface and form a multidimensional slime that protects them from unfavorable environments. These structures, known as biofilms, are detrimental and very hard to remove.

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Microbial infections of the brain can lead to dementia, and for many decades microbial infections have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. However, a causal role for infection in AD remains contentious, and the lack of standardized detection methodologies has led to inconsistent detection/identification of microbes in AD brains. There is a need for a consensus methodology; the Alzheimer's Pathobiome Initiative aims to perform comparative molecular analyses of microbes in post mortem brains versus cerebrospinal fluid, blood, olfactory neuroepithelium, oral/nasopharyngeal tissue, bronchoalveolar, urinary, and gut/stool samples.

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Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the world has witnessed over 617 million confirmed cases and more than 6.54 million confirmed deaths, but the actual totals are likely much higher. The virus has mutated at a significantly faster rate than initially projected, and positive cases continue to surge with the emergence of ever more transmissible variants.

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The acceleration of climate change has been associated with an alarming increase in the prevalence and geographic range of tick-borne diseases (TBD), many of which have severe and long-lasting effects-particularly when treatment is delayed principally due to inadequate diagnostics and lack of physician suspicion. Moreover, there is a paucity of treatment options for many TBDs that are complicated by diagnostic limitations for correctly identifying the offending pathogens. This review will focus on the biology, disease pathology, and detection methodologies used for the family which includes the Lyme disease agent .

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Prospective observational cohort study. To determine whether biofilms exist on spinal instrumentation recovered during revision surgery in which microbial cultures were negative. Biofilm bacteria are extremely difficult to detect by conventional culture methods used in the standard hospital setting.

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Introduction: To understand the role of the urinary microbiome in disease states and interpret non-culture-based diagnostic urine testing of midstream urine specimens, we must have a better understanding of the urinary microbiome in asymptomatic, healthy individuals. We examined the impact of gender, age, and menopausal status on the healthy human urinary microbiome in asymptomatic control subjects enrolled in the multi-institution National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain Network (MAPP) study.

Methods: Asymptomatic, healthy controls, recruited to be ageand sex-matched to patients in the Trans-MAPP Epidemiology and Phenotyping Study, provided midstream urine collection for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry identification of urinary microbiota.

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The primary aims of this study were to determine if any correlation exists in cases of fracture fixation among: (1) bacterial profiles recovered from the instrumentation and adjacent tissues; (2) the type of orthopedic injury; and (3) the clinical outcome-union versus nonunion. A secondary goal was to compare culture and molecular diagnostics for identifying the bacterial species present following fracture fixation. Single-institution, prospective case-control cohort study.

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In our community-based prospective cohort study in young children, we observed a significant increase in pneumococcal serotype 35B nasopharyngeal (NP) commensal colonization during the 2011-2014 timeframe, but these strains were not associated with disease. Beginning in 2015 and continuing through to the present, the serotype 35B virulence changed, and it became the dominant bacteria isolated and associated with pneumococcal acute otitis-media (AOM) in our cohort. We performed comparative analyses of 250 35B isolates obtained from 140 children collected between 2006 and 2019.

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Outbreaks of severe and chronic tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are on the rise. This is through the transmission of infectious disease agents to humans during tick feeding. The transmission rate and extent of microbial exchange, however, vary based on the tick microbiome composition.

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Genetic variants arising from within-patient evolution shed light on bacterial adaptation during chronic infection. Contingency loci generate high levels of genetic variation in bacterial genomes, enabling adaptation to the stringent selective pressures exerted by the host. A significant gap in our understanding of phase-variable contingency loci is the extent of their contribution to natural infections.

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Objective: To undertake the first comprehensive evaluation of the urinary microbiota associated with Hunner lesion (HL) interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). Despite no previous identification of a distinct IC/BPS microbial urotype, HL IC/BPS, an inflammatory subtype of IC/BPS, was hypothesized most likely to be associated with a specific bacterial species or microbial pattern.

Participants And Methods: The bacterial microbiota of midstream urine specimens from HL IC/BPS and age- and gender-matched IC/BPS patients without HL (non-HL IC/BPS) were examined using the pan-bacterial domain clinical-level molecular diagnostic Pacific Biosciences full-length 16S gene sequencing protocol, informatics pipeline and database.

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