Fernanda R Buzzola

Fernanda R Buzzola
University of Buenos Aires | UBA · Research Institute in Medical Microbiology and Parasitology (IMPAM)

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55
Publications
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Introduction
I currently work at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica (IMPaM), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)-CONICET, and at the Department of Microbiology, Parasitology and Immunology, School of Medicine, UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. I do research in bacterial pathogenesis.

Publications

Publications (55)
Article
Objectives Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) is a powerful technique for eradicating microorganisms, and our group previously demonstrated its effectiveness against planktonic cultures of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria using 5,10,15,20‐tetrakis[4‐(3‐ N,N ‐dimethylaminopropoxy)phenyl]porphyrin (TAPP) and visible light irradiation. However, biofilms ex...
Article
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Exposure of bacteria to low concentrations of biocides can facilitate horizontal gene transfer, which may lead to bacterial adaptive responses and resistance to antimicrobial agents. The emergence of antibacterial resistance not only poses a significant concern to the dairy industry but also adds to the complexity and cost of mastitis treatment. Th...
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Most new pathogens of humans and animals arise via switching events from distinct host species. However, our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological drivers of successful host adaptation, expansion, and dissemination are limited. Staphylococcus aureus is a major bacterial pathogen of humans and a leading cause of mastitis in dairy cows wor...
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Bovine mastitis is a disease of dairy cattle prevalent throughout the world that causes alterations in the quality and composition of milk, compromising technological performance. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important pathogens that produce clinical, subclinical, and chronic mastitis. Biofilms are considered a virulence factor necessar...
Article
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Salicylic acid (SAL) has recently been shown to induce biofilm formation in Staphylococcus aureus and to affect the expression of virulence factors. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of SAL on the regulatory agr system and its impact on S. aureus biofilm formation. The agr quorum-sensing system, which is a central regulator in S. aureu...
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Selection pressures exerted on Staphylococcus aureus by host factors during infection may lead to the emergence of regulatory phenotypes better adapted to the infection site. Traits convenient for persistence may be fixed by mutation thus turning these mutants into microevolution endpoints. The feasibility that stable, non-encapsulated S. aureus mu...
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Bacterial photodynamic inactivation (PDI) employing endogenous production of porphyrins from 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) -named ALA-PDI-, is a new promising tool to achieve bacteria control in non-spread infections. The technique combines the action of the porphyrins acting as photosensitisers with light, to produce reactive oxygen species to targe...
Article
An o/w microemulsion was designed and successfully loaded with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin for potential topical and intranasal use against Staphylococcus aureus. Based up on a physicochemical study an optimal system composed of 2.50% of isopropyl myristate, 42% of polysorbate 80: ethyl alcohol (2:1), and 55% of water was selected and then loaded...
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Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of bovine mastitis, commonly leading to long-lasting, persistent and recurrent infections. Thereby, S. aureus constantly refines and permanently adapts to the bovine udder environment. In this work, we followed S. aureus within-host adaptation over the course of three months in a naturally infected dairy cattl...
Article
Background: Thymus vulgaris essential oil (T) could be an alternative to classical antibiotics against bacterial biofilms, which show increased tolerance to antibiotics and host defence systems and contribute to the persistence of chronic bacterial infections. Hypothesis: A nanovesicular formulation of T may chemically protect the structure and rel...
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Staphylococcus aureus causing persistent, recurrent bovine intramammary infections are still a major challenge to dairy farming. Generally, one or a few clonal lineages are predominant in dairy herds, indicating animal-to-animal transfers and the existence of distinct pathotypic traits. The aim of this study was to determine if long term persistenc...
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Selection pressures exerted on Staphylococcus aureus by host factors may lead to the emergence of mutants better adapted to the evolving conditions at the infection site. This study was aimed at identifying the changes that occur in S. aureus exposed to the host defense mechanisms during chronic osteomyelitis and evaluating whether these changes af...
Data
CFU/tibia (upper) and OI (middle) from rats infected with isogenic Reynolds CP5, Reynolds CP8 and Reynolds NT. Bacterial loads and OI were measured 14 weeks after intratibial challenge. The sample size was n = 14 (Reynolds CP5), n = 12 (Reynolds CP8), and n = 11 (Reynolds NT) in both panels. The scattergram bars in the upper and middle panels repre...
Article
Full-text available
Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) has been used to inactivate microorganisms through the use of photosensitizers and visible light. On the one hand, near-infrared treatment (NIRT) has also bactericidal and dispersal effects on biofilms. In addition, dispersal biological tools such as enzymes have also been employed in antibiotic combination treatment...
Article
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Aspirin has provided clear benefits to human health. But salicylic acid (SAL) -the main aspirin biometabolite- exerts several effects on eukaryote and prokaryote cells. SAL can affect, for instance, the expression of Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors. SAL can also form complexes with iron cations and it has been shown that different iron chel...
Article
Full-text available
Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) involves the combined use of light and a photosensitizer, which, in the presence of oxygen, originates cytotoxic species capable of inactivating bacteria. Since the emergence of multi-resistant bacterial strains is becoming an increasing public health concern, PDI becomes an attractive choice. The aim of this work wa...
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Biofilm-associated diseases account for 80% of all infections in humans. Due to the emergence of antibiotic resistances, alternative therapies such as Photodynamic Inactivation (PDI) of microorganisms have emerged. Porphyrins with intrinsic positive charges have been proposed as successful photosensitizers (PSs) against microorganisms. We have rece...
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This study aimed to determine the clonal relationship among 137 Streptococcus uberis isolates from bovine milk with subclinical or clinical mastitis in Argentina and to assess the prevalence and conservation of pauA and sua genes. This information is critical for the rational design of a vaccine for the prevention of bovine mastitis caused by S. ub...
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Staphylococcus aureus is an invasive bacterial pathogen, and antibiotic resistance has impeded adequate control of infections caused by this microbe. Moreover, efforts to prevent human infections with single-component S. aureus vaccines have failed. In this study, we evaluated the protective efficacy in rats of vaccines containing both S. aureus ca...
Article
DNA adenine methylation is an essential factor in Salmonella virulence. Here, we investigate the involvement of DNA adenine methylase (Dam) in the expression and translocation of a SPI-5-encoded effector of S. Typhimurium. SopB expression and secretion were determined using SopB-FLAG-tagged wild type and dam strains of S. Typhimurium. Western blot...
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Salmonellosis is a major health problem worldwide. Salmonella Enteritidis has been a primary cause of Salmonella outbreaks in many countries. AvrA is an SPI-1 effector protein involved in the enteritis pathway with critical roles in inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis. In this work, we constructed an AvrA-FLAG-tagged strain of Salmonella Enteriti...
Article
The aim of this paper was to investigate a collection of plant extracts from Argentina as a source of new natural photosensitizers (PS) to be used in Photodynamic Inactivation (PDI) of bacteria. A collection of plants were screened for phototoxicity upon the Gram-positive species Staphylococcus epidermidis. Three extracts turned out to be photoacti...
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Staphylococcus aureus capsular polysaccharides (CP) are important virulence factors and represent putative targets for vaccine development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a high-throughput method to identify and discriminate the clinically important S. aureus capsular serotypes 5, 8, and NT (nontypeable). A comprehensive set of...
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Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage is a risk factor for individuals suffering from trauma, surgical procedures, invasive devices, and/or decreased immunity. Recently, we demonstrated that artificial nasal colonization with an attenuated S. aureus mutant reduced by bacterial interference with the colonization of pathogenic strains of S. aureus. Th...
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The molecular fingerprinting of a collection of 94 Staphylococcus aureus isolates from patients with osteomyelitis in Argentina was performed. Twenty-three SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) types and 37 spa types were identified. The isolates were assigned to 23 sequence types (STs). The proportion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRS...
Article
Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage is a risk factor for infection in humans, particularly in the hospital setting. Bacterial interference was used as an alternative strategy for the prevention of upper respiratory, urogenital and gastrointestinal tract infections. This study was designed to assess if the administration of a live-attenuated aroA m...
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Full-text available
The aim of this study was to investigate the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Streptococcus uberis isolated from subclinical mastitis (SCM) cases, and to examine the possible association between both characteristics. A total of 32 S. uberis were isolated from 772 quarter milk samples (SCM > 250,000 cells/ml) collected from 195 cows selec...
Article
One of the virulence factors required by Staphylococcus aureus at the early stages of infection is Eap, a secreted adhesin that binds many host proteins and is upregulated by the two-component regulatory system saeRS. The S. aureus Newman strain harbors a mutation in saeS that is thought to be responsible for the high level of Eap expression in thi...
Article
A vast array of virulence factors enable Staphylococcus aureus to readily adapt to different environmental niches in diverse hosts. The cap gene cluster is present in almost all relevant clinical S. aureus isolates and capsular polysaccharide expression is apparent in isolates from patients with acute infection. The number of S. aureus isolates fro...
Article
Full-text available
Capsular polysaccharides (CP) of serotypes 5 (CP5) and 8 (CP8) are major Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors. Previous studies have shown that salicylic acid (SAL), the main aspirin metabolite, affects the expression of certain bacterial virulence factors. In the present study, we found that S. aureus strain Reynolds (CP5) cultured with SAL was...
Article
Full-text available
There is ample evidence that Staphylococcus aureus capsular polysaccharide (CP) promotes virulence. Loss of capsule expression, however, may lead to S. aureus persistence in a chronically infected host. This study was conducted to determine the relative prevalence of nonencapsulated S. aureus in patients with chronic and acute osteomyelitis. Only 7...
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The pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus infections is influenced by multiple virulence factors that are expressed under variable conditions, and this has complicated the design of an effective vaccine. Clinical trials that targeted the capsule or clumping factor A (ClfA) failed to protect the recipients against staphylococcal infections. We passi...
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Many bovine Staphylococcus aureus isolates from Argentina are nontypeable (NT), i.e., they do not produce serotype 5 or 8 capsular polysaccharides (CPs). Some of these NT strains have a deletion of the cap5(8) gene cluster mediated by a variant of IS257, now designated IScap. IScap showed 93% amino acid identity to S. aureus ORF49 but only 85% iden...
Article
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Staphylococcus aureus is the bacterium most frequently isolated from milk of bovines with mastitis. Four allelic groups, which interfere with the regulatory activities among the different groups, have been identified in the accessory gene regulator (agr) system. The aim of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of the different agr groups in ca...
Article
Full-text available
Bovine mastitis Staphylococcus aureus isolates and prototypic live-attenuated vaccine strains were analyzed by SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing and automated ribotyping. The discriminatory index of these methods was 0.91 and 0.69, respectively. SmaI PFGE typing assigned all laboratory strains into cluster Q, which shared 49% simi...
Article
Full-text available
Staphylococcus aureus is the most important etiological agent of bovine mastitis, a disease that causes significant economic losses to the dairy industry. Several vaccines to prevent the disease have been tested, with limited success. The aim of this study was to obtain a suitable attenuated aro mutant of S. aureus by transposon mutagenesis and to...
Article
Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen-presenting cells and populate many tissues where they may participate in inflammatory reactions. The infiltration of polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNLs) into tissues is a prominent feature of inflammation. The mechanisms of PMNL recruitment depend on chemotactic factors and adhesion molecules expre...
Article
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Staphylococcus aureus capsular polysaccharides (CP) have been shown to enhance staphylococcal virulence in numerous animal models of infection. Although serotype 5 CP (CP5) and CP8 predominate among S. aureus isolates from humans, most staphylococcal isolates from bovines with mastitis in Argentina are capsule negative. This study was designed to e...
Article
The aim of this work was to evaluate the ability of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) to modulate the function of dendritic cells (DCs). Human DCs were used to analyze the effect of PMNL on DCs. The allostimulatory proliferation of T cells induced by DCs incubated with PMNL was lower (42 +/- 14%, n:8, p<0.05) compared with untreated DCs. The decr...
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The efficacy of intramammary (Ima) immunization with a live attenuated (la) Staphylococcus aureus mutant to protect the mouse mammary gland from infection has previously been established. The present study was aimed at evaluating whether Ima immunization with la-S. aureus can induce cell-mediated immune responses to the pathogen within the mammary...
Article
Bovine mastitis Staphylococcus aureus isolates and prototypic live-attenuated vaccine strains were analyzed by SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing and automated ribotyping. The discriminatory index of these methods was 0.91 and 0.69, respectively. SmaI PFGE typing assigned all laboratory strains into cluster Q, which shared 49% simi...
Article
Full-text available
Staphylococcus aureus is the most prevalent pathogen causing mastitis of dairy ruminants. This study was developed to ascertain the genotypes and genealogical relationship among strains isolated from milk of bovines with mastitis in Argentina. Molecular epidemiological analysis of S. aureus was performed on 112 isolates from 21 districts. Clonality...
Article
Full-text available
Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of bovine mastitis worldwide, and effective preventive or therapeutic modalities are lacking. Although most human S. aureus isolates produce capsular polysaccharides (CPs), few reports have described the prevalence of capsules on bovine isolates. This information is important for the rational design of a...
Article
Full-text available
The feasibility of constructing attenuated mutants of Staphylococcus aureus with two temperature-sensitive (ts) lesions for ultimate development of a live-attenuated strain was investigated. Temperature-sensitive S. aureus strain G/1/2, which grows well at 31 degrees C but does not replicate at 37 degrees C, was subjected to chemical mutagenesis. A...
Article
The capacity of phagocytes to concentrate macrolide antibiotics was suggested by previous reports. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of Haemophilus influenzae type b culture supernatants (HICS) to induce polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) migration and macrolide antibiotic delivery. Using a Boyden multiwell chamber and a chemotaxis assay und...
Article
We have recently demonstrated that treatment with interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) plus tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) protects granulocytopenic hosts from Pseudomonas aeruginosa aerosol challenge. In this study we characterized the inflammatory response induced by P. aerugionsa in granulocytopenic mice treated with 2,000 U IL-1 beta plus 2,...
Article
Whereas addition of 200 ng ml-1 exotoxin A (exoA) did not modify PMNL chemotaxis, 20 U ml-1 human recombinant interleukin-1 beta (hrIL-1 beta) primed polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) for migration towards Pseudomonas aeruginosa peptide chemotactins (PAPCs). Piroxicam (100 micrograms ml-1), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent (NSAIA), inhibit...
Article
We have recently demonstrated that treatment with interleukin 1β (IL-1β) plus tumor necrosis factor a (TNFα) protects granulocytopenic hosts from Pseudomonas aeruginosa aerosol challenge. In this study we characterized the inflammatory response induced by P. aeruginosa in granulocytopenic mice treated with 2,000 U IL-1β plus 2,000 U TNFα. Treatment...
Article
Full-text available
Whereas addition of 200 ng ml−1 exotoxin A (exoA) did not modify PMNL chemotaxis, 20 U ml−1 human recombinant interleukin-1β (hrIL-1β) primed polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) for migration towards Pseudomonas aeruginosa peptide chemotactins (PAPCs). Piroxicam (100 μg ml−1), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent (NSAIA), inhibited PMNL chemotax...

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