Project name: Fast bacterial strain typing as a tool for prevention and effective identification of local outbreaks of health care-associated infections

Authors

Matěj Bezdíček
Dita Říčná

Project Advisor

Martina Lengerová

The aim of this project is to provide tools for effective identification of local outbreaks of health care-associated infections, thus enabling the epidemiological study of the hospital bacterial population. The project is based on the introduction of a fast, simple and cost-less mini-MLST method for the prospective bacterial strain typing in hospitals. The method uses a PCR focused on variable regions in housekeeping genes, followed by analysis of amplicons by high resolution melting analysis. Due to the possibility of linking the mini-MLST results with a well-established MLST method, the next step is creation of a conversion key program that enables comparing results with international databases. A part of the project is also a database design allowing linking the results obtained from different departments within the hospital in order to effectively share and evaluate information.

Project name: Use of mobile application for improving patient’s compliance while taking antibiotics, public knowledge about proper antibiotic treatment and possibilities in statistical analysis of data gained from application users

Authors

Lukáš Pekárek
Filip Kaufman
Pavel Dědek
Vojtěch Vrba

Antibiotics are a unique group of drugs that can effectively treat bacterial infections. Already at the time of its introduction into clinical practice, resistant strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics emerged. The incidence of antibiotic resistance has been gradually increasing along with the easier availability of antibiotics without prescription. Today, antibiotic resistance is a common phenomenon that physicians need to take into account when choosing the right therapy. One of the main reasons for the emergence of resistance is also the misuse of prescribed drugs when the patient does not observe the correct intervals of use or prematurely interrupts the treatment. This will not effectively eliminate all pathogenic bacteria in the organism and they can spread further into the environment. The aim of this project is to improve the patient’s habits while taking antibiotics and to motivate them to complete the treatment. In addition, we also focused on popularizing the topic of antibiotic resistance, and we tried to bring this topic closer to people in a comprehensible way.

Project name: Alginate particles containing copper and zinc as potential alternatives in vaginal infections treatment

Authors

Miroslava Pavelková
Martina Naiserová

Project Advisor

Kateřina Kubová

In recent years, microbial resistant infections have become a global health challenge and threaten health of societies. Therefore, various approaches are being developed and used to eradicate antibiotic resistance, including research of natural substances with effect against microbial infections. The aim of this experimental study was to prepare new drug-free sodium alginate (ALG) particles cross-linked by Ca2 Cu2+, Zn2+ and Ca2+ ions technological parameters (particle size, sphericity, swelling capacity, content and release of bivalent ions) and biological activity (cytotoxicity and efficiency against the most common vaginal pathogens—Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis) with respect to potential vaginal administration. The particles were prepared using external ionotropic gelation offering a unique possibility to entrap multivalent ions in a polymer structure. Prepared mucoadhesive beads with particle size over 1000 μm exhibited sufficient sphericity (all above 0.80). The ion content depended on its affinity for the alginate and its radius. The samples contained Cu2+ ions were the least swollen. These particles also released the smallest percentage of ions during dissolution test. The efficiency of most samples against the most common vaginal pathogens was mostly observed at cytotoxic concentrations. Antimicrobial activity of beads (expressed as minimum inhibition concentration, MIC) was influenced mainly by the type of crosslinking ion. Lower MIC values were found for E. coli and E. faecalis in comparison with C.albicans. Sample ALG_Zn exhibited the highest efficiency against all pathogens. We can say, ALG_Zn beads exhibited excellent antimicrobial properties, and its MIC values were approximately the same as TD50. Moreover, vaginal environment in combination with suitable pharmaceutical administration of the beads could significantly reduce this cytotoxic effect. It is hoped that, in the future, zinc particles could replace some antibiotic medicines used in combating pathogens within vaginal infections of humans or animals.

Project name: Development od rapid tests to detect the most serious mechanisms of bacterial resistence to antibiotics

Authors

Veronika Pašková
Kateřina Chudějová
Anna Skálová

Project Advisor

Jaroslav Hrabák

The alarming spread of antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative bacteria is one of the major healthcare problems. Our research concentrates on the development of rapid diagnostic methods of the clinically most important resistance mechanisms. The main theme of our interest is resistance to last-line antibiotics, possessing a significant impact on treatment management. By our projects, we have managed to achieve several successes, with potential clinical consequences. We significantly improved the quality of MALDI-TOF MS based carbapenemase detection in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is often challenging. A new fast, effective, easy to use and therefore widely available spectrophotometric assay for carbapenemase detection was invented. Our other ongoing projects aim to develop a rapid and reliable tool for colistin and fosfomycin resistance detection by MALDI-TOF MS. We believe that by these methods we can contribute to fast detection of antimicrobial resistance, resulting in an early administration of appropriate antibiotic therapy with significant impact on patient’s outcome.

Project name: „Fight against antibiotic resistance“ peer program

Authors

Petra Macounová
Lukáš Dvořák

The topic of antibiotic resistance is becoming highly discussed nowadays. However, the biggest problem of this theme is low awareness and lack of knowledge in the population, especially in lay people but even in experts. Due to this, there is insufficient prevention of antibiotic resistance which makes this topic difficult to solve. Meanwhile the incidence of resistant organisms is stadily rising and its probably going to be increasing in the future even more.
That’s why this project is focused to improve the level of knowledge among students because the younger generation has more power to relieve impacts of antibiotic resistance.
We created this program proposal which should lead to better awareness – which is crucial for effective prevention. In this project we deal with the topics of bacteria and viruses and some selected infectious diseases caused by them. Further we try to descript the topic of antibiotic resistance including recommendation to prevent it so we are not going to get to the post antibiotic era. We also describe immunity and basic principles of infection prevention, including the importance of vaccination.
We would like to spread the awareness among students through the peer program. The program is based on providing information at 5 different stands, which together form interactive program.
The aim of this program is to provide an education to the students in the form of a game. They can apply the acquired knowledge in their future life. We also want to explain to them the principles of using antibiotics so they can handle the problem of antibiotic resistance.

Authors

Project

Project advisor

Matěj Bezdíček

Dita Říčná

Fast bacterial strain typing as a tool for prevention and effective identification of local outbreaks of health care-associated infections

Martina Lengerová

Kristína Bradáčová

Nikola Horňáková

Renata Pavelková

Microbiome and skin

Ivana Márová

Matěj Černý

Jakub Svoboda

Development of biomimetic materials for antibacterial applications

Viola Tokárová

Michaela Čižmárová

David Panáček

Věra Kohlová

Silver-based nanomaterials to overcome antibiotic resistance and eliminate resistant bacteria

Aleš Panáček

Milada Dvořáčková

Monika Dvořáková-Heroldová

Natálie Hochmanová

Comparion of the efficacy of antibiotic and alternative phage therapy in clinically important Staphylococci

Monika Dvořáková Heroldová

Michael Gargulák

Matouš Čížek

Vendula Koublová

Aleš Vavřiník

Aneta Surovíková

A theranostic approach for managing serious bacterial infections: Use of silver nanoparticles

René Kizek

Julie Hoová

Lucia Dzurická

Veronika Šmídová

Karolína Šnajdarová

Optimization and development of a new probiotic preparation

Petra Matoušková

Anna Hudcovičová

Klaudia Harbutová

Monika Paulíková

Natural constituents as potential antimicrobial agents

Alice Sychrová

Petra Macounová

Lukáš Dvořák

Peer program “Playing against antibiotic resistance”

Eva Mališková

Tereza Nováčková

Prebiotics and probiotics: Screening of the prebiotic potential of selected fungal species growing in the Czech Republic

Marcela Nejezchlebová

Barbora Musilová

Filip Dámek

Raising awarness among the general public about the effectiveness of antibiotics and the risk of resistance

Eva Brichtová

Veronika Pašková

Kateřina Chudějová

Anna Skálová

Development od rapid tests to detect the most serious mechanisms of bacterial resistence to antibiotics

Jaroslav Hrabák

Miroslava Pavelková

Martina Naiserová

Alginate particles containing copper and zinc as potential alternatives in vaginal infections treatment

Kateřina Kubová

Lukáš Pekárek

Filip Kaufman

Pavel Dědek

Vojtěch Vrba

Use of mobile application for improving patient’s compliance while taking antibiotics, public knowledge about proper antibiotic treatment and possibilities in statistical analysis of data gained from application users

Luděk Sehnal

Tereza Procházková

Research of new antimicrobials from cyanobacteria

Alena Siváková