Atayan, Yahya; Hacisalihoglu, Payam

Introduction: Helicobacter pylori are a microaerophile gram-negative bacteria and the most frequent factor of chronic gastritis. Recently, there has been an inclination to various non-invasive tests to determine the severity of H. pylori infection in the gastric tissue. The serum neutrophils/lymphocytes rate (NLR) is a simple, safe, non-invasive and active inflammation reagent. The purpose of this study is examining the correlation between the increase in the positivity/severity of H. pylori infection and the increase in the NLR. Material and method: 149 patients were included into the study by considering the Sydney criteria in accordance with H. pylori severity degrees in 3 groups; Mild (n=49), Moderate-Severe (n=67) and Severe (n=33). A Control Group was also formed (n=22) with negative H. pylori by three experienced pathologists. Result: It has been determined that the severity has increased among the groups with H. pylori positive as regard to the increase in serum NLR (r: 0.295, p: 0.017), there has been a significant correlation has been determined between the Control Group and the Moderate-Severe patients (p:0.014), the Severe patients (p:0.002). Conclusion: It is suggested that the serum NLR, which can be used in order to predict the severity of the H. pylori Infection in patients with chronic gastritis, can be a practical, inexpensive and non-invasive test.

Duzgun, Azer Ozad; Saral, Aysegul

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of residues at 228th positions of VIM-38 on minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) and molecular docking analysis. Materials and methods: blaVIM-38 gene was cloned into expression vector pET100/D-TOPO. Then pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38 was used to generate the R228S mutation by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutant was transformed into E. coli Dh5α. Changes in the activity of mutation R228S was determined by E-test. Molecular docking analysis of the binding affinity of meropenem and imipenem with VIM-38 and VIM-38 R228S was performed using AutoDock Vina_1_1_2. Results: According to E-test results, pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38 and pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38/ R228S have same MIC value for amoxicillin, ticarcillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin and ticarcillin. It was determined decrease in pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38/ R228S of MIC for aztreonam, amikacin and cefixine. There are 3-fold deference in MIC between pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38 and pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38/ R228S for cefoxitin. pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38 has 0.5 µg/ml and pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38/ R228S has 0.125 µg/m for imipenem, we observed 4-fold deference. Also, there is about 170-fold deference between pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38 (16 µg/ml) and pET100/D-TOPO-VIM-38/ R228S (0.094 µg/ml) for meropenem. VIM-38 and VIM-38 R228S have very close to the negative low free energies of binding of the meropenem and imipenem. Conclusion: These results showed that substitution (R228S) slightly have effect on enzyme activity.