RT002 / Retrotope - LARVOL DELTA

Increase of Clostridioides difficile PCR ribotype 002 infection with decreased disease severity in hospitalized patients in the Netherlands. (PubMed, Microbiol Spectr) - "In 2019, an increase in Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) due to clonal RT002 strains was reported in Ireland...However, it cannot always distinguish between widespread, recently emerged strains and local transmission chains, making it challenging to determine the exact sources of infection. Continued surveillance and genetic characterization of C. difficile are essential to better understand these trends and improve control measures."

Journal • Infectious Disease

Molecular characterization of Clostridioides difficile isolated from older adults during prospective population-based active surveillance at nine hospitals in Tokyo, Japan, 2018-2020. (PubMed, Anaerobe) - "Consistent with prior studies, C. difficile isolates from patients with CDI represented diverse ribotypes with approximately one third of isolates RT018/356. Of note, one isolate each of RT027 and RT078/126 were identified, indicating these hypervirulent strains are present in hospitals in Japan. Public health interventions are needed to reduce the CDI burden in Japan."

Journal • Infectious Disease

Clostridioides difficile in Honduras: a genomic and phenotypic characterization of the persistent RT027 and emergent RT002 genotypes. (PubMed, J Hosp Infect) - "Taken together, our findings highlight the presence of persistent and community-relevant C. difficile strains and the consequent need to adopt and develop interventions to control and prevent CDI in the Honduran national health system within a One Health research approach."

Journal • Infectious Disease

A Colombian strain of Clostridioides difficile ribotype 002 induces a highly inflammatory response in a mouse infection model. (PubMed, Virulence) - "Furthermore, histopathological analysis of colonic tissue from the group infected with RT002 revealed the presence of an inflammatory response similar to the hypervirulent strain RT027. These results suggest that RT002 of C. difficile, one of the main circulating strains in Colombia, can induce a severe inflammatory response, potentially correlating with increased virulence and severity of these strains in CDI cases."

Journal • Preclinical • Infectious Disease • Inflammation • CCL11 • IL2 • PTPRC

Surveillance of Clostridioides difficile in Canadian retail meat and genomic linkages to community-associated human clinical infections in Canada. (PubMed, Can J Microbiol) - "All three isolates were obtained from pork and belonged to sequence types (ST)/ribotypes (RT) that have previously been isolated from human clinical CA-CDI cases in Canada: ST1/RT027, ST8/RT002, and ST10/RT015. Retail meat isolates were susceptible to the antimicrobials tested, save one isolate with intermediate resistance to clindamycin. Genomic comparison to Canadian human clinical CA-CDI isolates with the same corresponding ST/RT types showed two of the three pork isolates clustered with CA-CDI isolates via core-genome multilocus sequencing typing, with single nucleotide variant (SNV) analysis showing further genomic relatedness of 2 SNVs. Retail meat may therefore be a low source of CA-CDI exposure in Canada, with the potential for foodborne transmission of select clones."

Journal • Infectious Disease

Genomic study of European Clostridioides difficile ribotype 002/sequence type 8. (PubMed, Microb Genom) - "This study aimed at investigating the genetic characteristics of 537 C. difficile genomes of ST8/RT002...Our study highlights the importance of ST8 as a prominent lineage of C. difficile with critical implications in the context of One Health. In addition, these findings strongly support the need for continued surveillance and investigation of non-human samples to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of C. difficile."

Journal • Gastroenterology • Gastrointestinal Disorder • Immunology • Infectious Disease

Antimicrobial susceptibility in Clostridioides difficile varies according to European region and isolate source. (PubMed, JAC Antimicrob Resist) - "Metronidazole, vancomycin, fidaxomicin, moxifloxacin, clindamycin, imipenem, tigecycline, linezolid, rifampicin and meropenem minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for 280 clinical and 126 animal isolates were determined by Wilkins-Chalgren agar dilution...Five isolates (RT002, RT010 and RT016) were metronidazole resistant (MIC = 8 mg/L) and 10 (RT027; RT198) had intermediate resistance (4 mg/L)...No resistance to imipenem or meropenem was observed. Increased antimicrobial resistance was detected in eastern Europe and mostly associated with RT027 and related emerging RT181, while clinical isolates from northern and western Europe had the lowest general levels of resistance."

Journal

Defining the phylogenetics and resistome of the major Clostridioides difficile ribotypes circulating in Australia. (PubMed, Microb Genom) - "Genome scrutiny showed that AMR was uncommon in these lineages, with resistance-conferring alleles present in only 15/169 RT014/020 strains (8.9 %), 1/36 RT056 strains (2.78 %) and none of 77 RT002 strains...The low number of plausible transmission events found for these major RTs (and previously documented populations in animal and environmental sources/reservoirs) points to widespread and persistent community sources of diverse C. difficile strains as opposed to ongoing nationwide healthcare outbreaks dominated by a single clone. Together, these data provide new insights into the evolution of major lineages causing CDI in Australia and highlight the urgent need for enhanced surveillance, and for public health interventions to move beyond the healthcare setting and into a One Health paradigm to effectively combat this complex pathogen."

Journal • Infectious Disease

The burden of Clostridioides difficile infections in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific: A narrative review. (PubMed, Anaerobe) - "The regional CDI burden in Asia is still incompletely documented, seemingly due to low awareness and limited laboratory testing. Despite this apparent under recognition, the current CDI burden highlights the need for broader surveillance and for application of preventative measures against CDI in Asia."

Journal • Review • Gastroenterology • Gastrointestinal Disorder • Infectious Disease

Mutual Coupling Reduction in Compact MIMO Antenna Operating on 28 GHz by Using Novel Decoupling Structure. (PubMed, Micromachines (Basel)) - "Roger RT6002, with a 10 mm × 10 mm dimension, is utilized to engineer this work, offering a wideband and high gain...The outcome of this proposed work is performed using already published work. The outcomes and comparison make the presented design the best option for future 5G devices."

Journal

Genomic epidemiology and transmission dynamics of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection in Western Australia. (PubMed, Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis) - "The C. difficile strain population comprised 13 sequence types (STs) led by ST2 (PCR ribotype (RT) 014, 36.2%), ST8 (RT002, 19.1%) and ST34 (RT056, 11.7%)...For some rCDI episodes caused by STs 2 and 231, within-host strain diversity was observed, characterised by loss/gain of moxifloxacin resistance. Genomics improves discrimination of relapse from reinfection and identifies putative strain transmission events among patients with rCDI. Current definitions of relapse and reinfection based on the timing of recurrence need to be reconsidered."

Journal • Infectious Disease

Virome of wild rats (Rattus norvegicus) captured far from pig farms in Jiangsu province of China reveals novel porcine circovirus type 2d (PCV2d) sequences. (PubMed, Virol J) - "Our research reported the genomic characterization of two novel PCV2 strains (js2021-Rt001 and js2021-Rt002) and provided the first supported evidence that PCV2d could naturally infect wild rats in China. However, whether the newly identified strains have potential for circulating in nature in vertical and horizontal transmission or inter-species jumping between rats and pigs needs further research."

Journal • Preclinical

An Innovative Compact Split-Ring-Resonator-Based Power Tiller Wheel-Shaped Metamaterial for Quad-Band Wireless Communication. (PubMed, Materials (Basel)) - "Dielectric RT6002 materials of standard thickness (1.524 mm) were used as a substrate...The simulated results of the anticipated structure are validated by authentication processes such as array orientation, HFSS and ADS for an equivalent electrical circuit model. Given its high EMR and compactness in dimensions, the presented metamaterial can be used in S-, C- and X-band wireless communication applications."

Journal

Sentinel surveillance and epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile in Denmark, 2016 to 2019. (PubMed, Euro Surveill) - "The most common sequence types (ST) were ST2/13 (RT014/020) (19.5%), ST1 (RT027) (10.8%), ST11 (RT078) (6.7%), ST8 (RT002) (6.6%) and ST6 (RT005/117) (5.1%). The data also highlighted geographical differences, mostly related to ST1 and temporal decline of ST1 (p = 0.0008) and the increase of ST103 (p = 0.002), ST17 (p = 0.004) and ST37 (p = 0.003), the latter three binary toxin-negative.ConclusionSentinel surveillance allowed nationwide monitoring of geographical differences and temporal changes in C. difficile infections in Denmark, including emerging types, regardless of binary toxin status."

Journal • Immunology • Infectious Disease

A wideband circularly polarized CPW-fed substrate integrated waveguide based antenna array for ISM band applications. (PubMed, Heliyon) - "The proposed antenna is fabricated on a low-profile Rogers RT6002 substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.94, tanδ of 0.0012 and an approximate height of 0.76mm...The simulation and experimental results are taken into consideration and there is a good promise between them. Hence, the antenna is a suitable applicant to be utilized for the applications in the ISM band."

Journal

Development of diverse coding metamaterial structure for radar cross section reduction applications. (PubMed, Sci Rep) - "First, the 1-bit coding metamaterial that is made up of only "0" and "1" elements with 0 and π phase responses by adopting two types of unit cells such as square-shaped Rogers RT6002 substrate material with and without metamaterial structure were analysed in this work...Meanwhile, the scattering and effective medium parameters of the unit cell metamaterial structure were also analysed in this work. In a nutshell, the 1-bit coding metamaterial in a controlled sequence can control electromagnetic waves and realize different functionalities."

Journal

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile isolated from paediatric patients in Western Australia 2019-2020. (PubMed, Pathology) - "The most prevalent PCR ribotypes (RTs) were RT 002 (12.4%), a toxigenic strain, and RT 009 (15.7%), a non-toxigenic strain...Resistance to metronidazole, fidaxomicin, amoxicillin, rifaximin and meropenem was not detected, however, 45 isolates (50.6%) showed resistance to at least one agent, and multidrug resistance was observed in 13.3% of the resistant isolates (6/45). This study provides a baseline for future surveillance of paediatric CDI in Australia. Given that young children can be asymptomatically colonised with toxigenic C. difficile strains, they represent a potential reservoir of strains causing CDI in adults."

Journal • Infectious Disease • Pediatrics

Molecular epidemiology of endemic Clostridioides difficile infection in Japan. (PubMed, Anaerobe) - "Most of the multicenter studies showed that the major prevalent PCR-ribotypes (RT018-related type, RT014, RT002, RT369, and RT017) accounted for more than 75% of clinical isolates in Japan, which has not changed significantly since the late1990s. Notably, the vast majority of RT027 isolates, including the epidemic strain responsible for the outbreak, were susceptible to moxifloxacin, suggesting that Japanese RT027 represents the pre-epidemic RT027 genetic background. To understand the CDI burden in Japan, a nationwide strain-based surveillance system is imperative."

Clinical • Journal • Infectious Disease

Modified double dumbbell-shaped split-ring resonator-based negative permittivity metamaterial for satellite communications with high effective medium ratio. (PubMed, Sci Rep) - "The dimension of the proposed unit cell is 9 × 9 × 1.524 mm, fabricated on a Rogers RT6002 (lossy) substrate material...To evaluate the parametric study, the proposed unit cell was subjected to change different substrate types, change of split gap of rings, change of direction of electromagnetic field propagation, and structural optimization. In conclusion, the S, X and Ku-bands in the proposed metamaterial are competent for satellite communications as they are also investigated using an array of a unit cell."

Journal

Symmetric square shaped metamaterial structure with quintuple resonance frequencies for S, C, X and Ku band applications. (PubMed, Sci Rep) - "This study emphasis on a compact 14 × 14 mm and 1.524 mm thick substrate material known as Rogers RT6002...Furthermore, the proposed SQM manifested left handed characteristics at the second to fifth resonance bands. In a nutshell, the SQM successfully achieves the objectives of this research work and can be applied to multi band applications."

Journal

Prevalence and phylogenetic relationship of Clostridioides difficile strains in fresh poultry meat samples processed in different cutting plants. (PubMed, Int J Food Microbiol) - "To compare the phylogenetic relationship of the isolated strains from certain cutting plants over several months in 2018 and 2019, we analyzed them using NGS followed by core genome MLST. Interestingly, highly related strains (0-3 alleles distance) of common clinical RT001 and RT002 isolates, as well as of the non-toxigenic RT205 isolates were detectable in same cutting plants over a period of three and 16 months, respectively.The continuous contamination with the same strain could be explained by the longterm persistence of this strain within the cutting plant (e.g., within the scalder), or with a recurring entry e.g. from the same fattening farm."

Journal • Gastroenterology • Gastrointestinal Disorder • Immunology • Infectious Disease

DaxibotulinumtoxinA for Injection has a prolonged duration of response in the treatment of glabellar lines: Pooled data from two multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 studies (SAKURA 1 and SAKURA 2). (PubMed, J Am Acad Dermatol) - P3 | "DAXI offers a prolonged duration of response for glabellar line reduction and is well tolerated."

Clinical • Journal • P3 data • Pain

Quality assurance for genotyping and resistance testing of Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile isolates - experiences from the first inter-laboratory ring trial in four German speaking countries. (PubMed, Anaerobe) - "Six C. difficile isolates representing the epidemiologic important ribotypes (RT), RT001, RT002, RT010, RT014, RT027, and RT078 were blinded and send to 21 participating laboratories...Susceptibilities against metronidazole, moxifloxacin, and vancomycin were correctly identified in 235 of 237 cases and in accordance to agar dilution as the gold standard. Genotyping of the C. difficile test strains revealed a remarkable high concordance on the level of ribotypes with a wide variety of methods. Epsilometry appears to be a reliable method for AST of C. difficile isolates in routine clinical microbiology laboratories."

Journal

In vitro activity of eravacycline against common ribotypes of Clostridioides difficile. (PubMed, J Antimicrob Chemother) - "This study demonstrated potent in vitro activity of eravacycline against a large collection of clinical C. difficile strains that was not affected by ribotype, susceptibility to vancomycin or the presence of certain tet resistance genes. Further development of eravacycline as an antibiotic to be used in patients with Clostridioides difficile infection is warranted."

Journal • Preclinical

The epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile  infections in the Netherlands between May 2017 and May 2018 (ECCMID 2019) - "Compared to previous years, the proportion of CDI cases due to RT 002 increased significantly, and was now the second most frequently encountered RT(11.9%). The mean incidence of CDI remains stable in the Netherlands, as well as the outcomes of CDI episodes, but the proportion of community-onset cases has increased compared to the start of the surveillance. Severe CDI was seen in 20.4% of cases, with a CDI-related mortality rate of 3.1%. The most frequently encountered RT was still 014/020, now followed by 002 ."

Clinical