Fluorochrome and flow cytometry to monitor microorganisms in treated hospital wastewater

Antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of ceragenins against Achromobacter species isolated from cystic fibrosis patients

Achromobacter species, which are recognized as emerging pathogens isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis, are capable of forming biofilm in the respiratory tract in patients and innate multidrug resistance to antimicrobials. CSAs are cationic salt derivatives that mimic the activity of antimicrobial peptides and exhibit antimicrobial activity against bacteria. In this study, the in vitro activities of various ceragenins against Achromobacter-species biofilms were investigated comparatively with a conventional antibiotic (meropenem). Biofilm-formation inhibition and biofilm-adhesion inhibition were investigated on five strong biofilm-producing strains. The lowest MIC₅₀ result was obtained with CSA-13. All of the tested CSAs showed significant biofilm inhibitory activity in the manner of a time- and concentration-dependent effect. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article to evaluate the antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of tested CSAs against Achromobacter species.

Flow cytometry applications in water treatment, distribution, and reuse: A review

Ensuring safe and effective water treatment, distribution, and reuse requires robust methods for characterizing and monitoring waterborne microbes. Methods widely used today can be limited by low sensitivity, high labor and time requirements, susceptibility to interference from inhibitory compounds, and difficulties in distinguishing between viable and non-viable cells. Flow cytometry (FCM) has recently gained attention as an alternative approach that can overcome many of these challenges. This article critically and systematically reviews for the first time recent literature on applications of FCM in water treatment, distribution, and reuse. In the review, we identify and examine nearly 300 studies published from 2000 to 2018 that illustrate the benefits and challenges of using FCM for assessing source-water quality and impacts of treatment-plant discharge on receiving waters, wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, and drinking water distribution. We then discuss options for combining FCM with other indicators of water quality and address several topics that cut across nearly all applications reviewed. Finally, we identify priority areas in which more work is needed to realize the full potential of this approach. These include optimizing protocols for FCM-based analysis of waterborne viruses, optimizing protocols for specifically detecting target pathogens, automating sample handling and preparation to enable real-time FCM, developing computational tools to assist data analysis, and improving standards for instrumentation, methods, and reporting requirements. We conclude that while more work is needed to realize the full potential of FCM in water treatment, distribution, and reuse, substantial progress has been made over the past two decades. There is now a sufficiently large body of research documenting successful applications of FCM that the approach could reasonably and realistically see widespread adoption as a routine method for water quality assessment.

Density of environmental Acanthamoeba and their responses to superheating disinfection

Exposure to viable Acanthamoeba may cause fatal encephalitis and blinding keratitis in humans. Quantification of environmental Acanthamoeba by a reliable analytical assay is essential to assess the risk of human exposure and efficacy of control measures (e.g., superheating). Two DNA binding dyes (ethidium monoazide (EMA) and propidium monoazide) coupled with real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were tested for the ability in selectively quantifying viable Acanthamoeba castellanii. This newly developed qPCR assay was applied to determine the density of environmental Acanthamoeba and disinfection efficacy of superheating. Results showed qPCR with 2.3 μg/mL EMA performed optimal with a great linearity (R (2) = 0.98) and a wide range of detection (5-1.5 × 10(5) cells). EMA-qPCR analyses on water samples collected from cooling towers, eyewash stations, irrigated farmlands, and various wastewater treatment stages further showed viable Acanthamoeba density from nondetectable level to 6.3 × 10(5) cells/L. Superheating A. castellanii at 75-95 °C for 20 min revealed significant reductions in both EMA-qPCR and qPCR detectable Acanthamoeba target sequences with an adverse association between heating temperature and qPCR-determined DNA quantity (r = -0.76 to -0.93, p < 0.0001). Moreover, A. castellanii trophozoites were more sensitive to superheat stress than the cells being encysted for 6 and 13 d (p < 0.05). This is the first study to quantify environmental Acanthamoeba and characterize their responses to superheating by EMA-qPCR. The quantitative data provided in this study facilitate to understand better the relative risk for human exposed to viable Acanthamoeba and the efficacy of superheating against Acanthamoeba.

Flow cytometry for fast microbial community fingerprinting

Characterizing the microbial community of water is important in different domains, ranging from food and beverage production to wastewater treatment. Conventional methods, such as heterotrophic plate count, selective plating and molecular techniques, are time consuming and labor intensive. A flow cytometry based approach was developed for a fast and objective comparison of microbial communities based on the distribution of cellular features from single cells within these communities. The method consists of two main parts, firstly the generation of fingerprint data by flow cytometry and secondly a novel statistical pipeline for the analysis of flow cytometric data. The combined method was shown to be useful for the discrimination and classification of different brands of drinking water. It was also successfully applied to detect changes in microbial community composition of drinking water caused by changing environmental factors. Generally, the method can be used as a fast fingerprinting method of microbial communities in aquatic samples and as a tool to detect shifts within these communities.

An ecosystem analysis of the activated sludge microbial community

This study was undertaken (i) to investigate the interactions of the activated sludge microbial community in a chemostat with the "environment", such as the substrate composition and variations, (ii) to investigate how these interactions affect the quality of the treated effluent and (iii) to determine the limits or applicability conditions to the indicators and to the prediction potential of the treated effluent quality. This work presents (a) the experimental results obtained from a reactor fed municipal wastewater (Data Set2-DS2) concerning the reactor's operating conditions and the microbial community of the sludge (b) comparisons between DS2 and an older Data Set (DS1) obtained when the reactor was fed synthetic substrate, all other experimental conditions being identical, and (c) simulation results and sensitivity analyses of two model runs (R1 and R2, corresponding to DS1 and DS2). The first trophic level (P(1)) of the DS2 microbial community consisted of bacteria, the second trophic level (P(2)) of bacteria-eating protozoa, rotifers and nematodes and the third trophic level (P(3)) of carnivorous protozoa and arthropods. Rotifers were an important constituent of the DS2 microbial community. The DS1 and DS1 communities differed in total size, trophic level sizes and species composition. Correlations between the major microbial groups of DS2 community and either loading rates or effluent quality attributes were generally low, but the correlation of bacteria with SVI and ammonia in the effluent was better. Also, the ratio of rotifers to protozoa in P(2) was correlated to BOD in the effluent. The results of this work indicate that predictions of the treated effluent quality based only on protozoa may not be safe. Sensitivity analysis of R2 run indicate that, when variation in Y and K(d) biokinetic coefficients of the sludge are combined with fluctuations in composition and quality of municipal wastewater entering the reactor, then sufficient significant prediction of bacteria in the aeration tank is not possible. In order to avoid erroneous oversimplifications regarding phenomena taking place in the sludge and to understand "unexplained" process failures, more ecologically sound methods for studying wastewater treatment (WWT) processes are needed, since WWT are primarily ecosystems interacting with technological systems.