Bacteriophages in clinical samples can interfere with microbiological diagnostic tools
Por:
Brown-Jaque, M, Muniesa, M, Navarro, F
Publicada:
9 sep 2016
Resumen:
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, and they are found everywhere their bacterial hosts are present, including the human body. To explore the presence of phages in clinical samples, we assessed 65 clinical samples (blood, ascitic fluid, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, and serum). Infectious tailed phages were detected in >45% of ascitic fluid and urine samples. Three examples of phage interference with bacterial isolation were observed. Phages prevented the confluent bacterial growth required for an antibiogram assay when the inoculum was taken from an agar plate containing lysis plaques, but not when taken from a single colony in a phage-free area. In addition, bacteria were isolated directly from ascitic fluid, but not after liquid enrichment culture of the same samples, since phage propagation lysed the bacteria. Lastly, Gram-negative bacilli observed in a urine sample did not grow on agar plates due to the high densities of infectious phages in the sample.
Filiaciones:
Brown-Jaque, M:
Univ Barcelona, Dept Microbiol, Diagonal 645,Floor 0, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
Muniesa, M:
Univ Barcelona, Dept Microbiol, Diagonal 645,Floor 0, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
Navarro, F:
Hosp Santa Creu & Sant Pau, Inst Invest Biomed St Pau, Microbiol Serv, St Quinti 89, Barcelona 08041, Spain
Gold, Green Published
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