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Molecular Insights into Infectious Diseases
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Molecular Insights into Infectious Diseases

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2025 | Viewed by 2274

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Cyril Chik-Yan Yip

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: infectious diseases; virus; diagnostics; PCR; sequencing; genomics; phylogenetic analysis; molecular epidemiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. The diseases can be transmitted, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. A recent pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is one of the largest pandemics in recorded history, led to significant morbidity, mortality and socioeconomic disruption globally. Diagnosis, epidemiological study, prevention and treatment play critical roles in combating infectious disease outbreaks. Therefore, the development of rapid molecular diagnostic tests allows for the early detection of causative agents, which is important for timely patient management and infection control. Furthermore, research on molecular epidemiology provides a way to track the spread and evolution of pathogens. In addition, a detailed understanding of molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis may guide the identification of novel antimicrobials for treatment or the development of vaccines for disease prevention. This Special Issue welcomes original research articles or reviews in these areas.

Dr. Cyril Chik-Yan Yip
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • infectious disease
  • microorganism
  • pathogen
  • infection
  • molecular diagnosis
  • molecular epidemiology
  • pathogenesis
  • antimicrobial
  • vaccine

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 8369 KiB  
Article
The Comparative Characterization of a Hypervirulent Acinetobacter baumannii Bacteremia Clinical Isolate Reveals a Novel Mechanism of Pathogenesis
by Payam Benyamini
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(18), 9780; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25189780 - 10 Sep 2024
Viewed by 531
Abstract
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic Gram-negative pathogen with exquisite survival capabilities under various environmental conditions and displays widespread resistance to common antibiotics. A. baumannii is a leading cause of nosocomial infections that result in high morbidity and mortality rates. Accordingly, when multidrug resistance [...] Read more.
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic Gram-negative pathogen with exquisite survival capabilities under various environmental conditions and displays widespread resistance to common antibiotics. A. baumannii is a leading cause of nosocomial infections that result in high morbidity and mortality rates. Accordingly, when multidrug resistance rates surpass threshold levels, the percentage of A. baumannii clinical isolates surges. Research into A. baumannii has increased in the past decade, and multiple mechanisms of pathogenesis have been identified, including mechanisms underlying biofilm development, quorum sensing, exotoxin production, secretion system utilization, and more. To date, the two gold-standard strains used to investigate different aspects of A. baumannii pathogenesis include ATCC 17978 and ATCC 19606. Here, we report a comparative characterization study of three additional A. baumannii clinical isolates obtained from different infection types and derived from different anatomical regions of infected patients. The comparison of three clinical isolates in addition to the ATCC strains revealed that the hypervirulent bacteremia clinical isolate, known as HUMC1, employs a completely different mechanism of pathogenesis when compared to all its counterparts. In stark contrast to the other genetic variants, the hypervirulent HUMC1 isolate does not form biofilms, is antibiotic-susceptible, and has the capacity to reach higher levels of quorum compared to the other clinically relevant strains. Our data also reveal that HUMC1 does not shed endotoxin into the extracellular milieu, rather secretes the evolutionarily conserved, host-mimicking, Zonula occludens toxin (Zot). Taken together, our hypothesis that HUMC1 cells have the ability to reach higher levels of quorum and lack biofilm production and endotoxin shedding, accompanied by the substantial elaboration of Zot, suggests a novel mechanism of pathogenesis that appears to afford the hypervirulent pathogen with stealth-like capabilities when disseminating through the circulatory system in a state of bacteremia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Infectious Diseases)
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11 pages, 1638 KiB  
Article
Development and Evaluation of an In-House Real-Time RT-PCR Targeting nsp10 Gene for SARS-CoV-2 Detection
by Cyril Chik-Yan Yip, Jane Hau-Ching Poon, Kit-Hang Leung, Wan-Mui Chan, Jonathan Daniel Ip, Allen Wing-Ho Chu, Vincent Chi-Chung Cheng, Kwok-Yung Yuen and Kelvin Kai-Wang To
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(6), 3552; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25063552 - 21 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1299
Abstract
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 mutations poses significant challenges to diagnostic tests, as these mutations can reduce the sensitivity of commonly used RT-PCR assays. Therefore, there is a need to design diagnostic assays with multiple targets to enhance sensitivity. In this study, we identified [...] Read more.
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 mutations poses significant challenges to diagnostic tests, as these mutations can reduce the sensitivity of commonly used RT-PCR assays. Therefore, there is a need to design diagnostic assays with multiple targets to enhance sensitivity. In this study, we identified a novel diagnostic target, the nsp10 gene, using nanopore sequencing. Firstly, we determined the analytical sensitivity and specificity of our COVID-19-nsp10 assay. The COVID-19-nsp10 assay had a limit of detection of 74 copies/mL (95% confidence interval: 48–299 copies/mL) and did not show cross-reactivity with other respiratory viruses. Next, we determined the diagnostic performance of the COVID-19-nsp10 assay using 261 respiratory specimens, including 147 SARS-CoV-2-positive specimens belonging to the ancestral strain and Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Mu, Eta, Kappa, Theta and Omicron lineages. Using a LightMix E-gene RT-PCR assay as the reference method, the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the COVID-19-nsp10 assay were found to be 100%. The median Cp values for the LightMix E-gene RT-PCR and our COVID-19-nsp10 RT-PCR were 22.48 (range: 12.95–36.60) and 25.94 (range 16.37–36.87), respectively. The Cp values of the COVID-19-nsp10 RT-PCR assay correlated well with those of the LightMix E-gene RT-PCR assay (Spearman’s ρ = 0.968; p < 0.0001). In conclusion, nsp10 is a suitable target for a SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR assay. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Infectious Diseases)
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