Figure 1 - uploaded by Irlan Almeida Freires
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Selection of tissue from aortic valve tissues. After primary tissues are obtained, they should be immediately taken to the laboratory for evaluation and preparation. Only areas with no signs of calcification or inflammation are selected for sectioning with a 3 mm biopsy punch.
Source publication
The interaction of pathogens with host tissues is a key step towards successful colonization and establishment of infection. During bacteremia, pathogens can virtually access all sensitive organs which are and should remain sterile (e.g. heart, kidney, brain). Nevertheless, host immunity, blood flow and tissue integrity can generally prevent bacter...
Similar publications
We report a case of Streptococcus mutans multivalvular infective endocarditis complicated by aortic root abscess and septic emboli in a 19-year-old male with a bicuspid aortic valve. This case illustrates the progression of untreated subacute bacterial endocarditis and highlights the importance of ongoing clinical suspicion for infective endocardit...
Citations
Objectives:
Staphylococcal infective endocarditis (IE) remains a hard-to-treat infection with high mortality. Both the evaluation of new innovative therapies and research on alternative models mimicking human IE are therefore urgently needed to improve the prognosis of patients with diagnosed IE. Dalbavancin is a novel anti-staphylococcal lipoglycopeptide but there are limited data supporting its efficacy on biofilm infections. This antibiotic could be an alternative to current therapies for the medical treatment of IE but it needs to be further evaluated.
Methods:
Here we developed an original ex vivo model of Staphylococcus aureus IE on human heart valves and assessed biofilm formation on them. After validating the model, the efficacy of two antistaphylococcal antibiotics, vancomycin and dalbavancin, was compared by measuring and visualizing their respective ability to inhibit and eradicate late-formed biofilm.
Results:
Determination of the minimum biofilm inhibitory (MbIC) and eradicating (MbEC) concentrations in our ex vivo model identified dalbavancin as a promising drug with much lower MbIC and MBEC than vancomycin (respectively <0.01 versus 28 mg/L and 0.03 versus 32 mg/L).
Conclusions:
These data highlight a strong bactericidal effect of dalbavancin, particularly on an infected heart valve compared with vancomycin. Dalbavancin could be a realistic alternative treatment for the management of staphylococcal IE.
