The present invention refers to a method for the production of live attenuated bacterial strains, suitable as vaccine candidates, comprising the steps of: A. providing a bacterial strain capable of expressing glutamate racemase and possibly D-amino acid transaminase and comprising a peptidoglycan cell wail, and B. inactivating the gene or genes encoding for the glutamate racemase enzyme and, if needed, the gene or genes encoding for the enzyme D-amino acid transaminase in such way that the bacterial strain is no longer capable of expressing a functional glutamate racemase and/or a functional D-amino acid transaminase; wherein the inactivation of said genes causes said bacterial strain to be auxotrophic for D-glutamate.

The present disclosure relates to a class of engineered polypeptides having a binding affinity for CD69 and provides a CD69-binding polypeptide comprising the sequence EX.sub.2X.sub.3X.sub.4AX.sub.6X.sub.7EIX.sub.10 X.sub.11LPNLX.sub.16X.sub.17X.sub.18QK X.sub.21AFKX.sub.25X.sub.26LKD. The present disclosure also relates to the use of such a CD69-binding polypeptide as a therapeutic, prognostic and/or diagnostic agent.

The present disclosure generally relates to compositions and methods for inducing an immune response against S. aureus antigens in a subject. The invention also relates to nucleic acid vaccines and methods of use thereof to treat or prevent diseases or disorders associated with S. aureus infection.

A method for isolating proteins from prokaryotes is disclose. The method enables easy break down of bacterial cell walls to obtain intact proteins without damage by a simple process of adding organic solvents including lower alcohols or nitrile derivatives; or applying osmotic stimulation to samples containing pathogenic bacteria or the like. The method may be usefully applied to rapid and accurate identification of periplasmic proteins of gram-negative bacteria without additional purification process.

An airway model for culturing microbes such as bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is provided, comprising culturing the microbes in synthetic sputum media on an air-liquid interface culture of airway epithelial cells. The bacteria may be Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the epithelial cells may be from a cystic fibrosis (CF) patient and/or comprise a mutation in CFTR found in CF patients.

Disclosed is a method for identifying causative bacteria of sepsis, the method comprising: a step of performing a PCR method using a sample collected from a subject and a combination of sets of primers each specific to the full-length or a partial region of each of gyrB gene of Escherichia coli, nuc gene of Staphylococcus aureus, atlE gene of Staphylococcus epidermidis, gyrB gene of Klebsiella pneumoniae and rpoB gene of Enterococcus spp.; and a step of detecting the presence or absence of amplification of the full-length or the partial region of each of the genes by using a combination of probes each specific to DNA of the full-length or the partial region.

Novel strains of Staphylococcus aureus and uses thereof. The invention provides mutant strains of S. aureus devoid of all non-essential two-component signal systems (TCSs) and even the essential walKR system, the intermediate mutants devoid of a number of TCSs and their uses as research and biotechnological platform. The mutants devoid of all non-essential TCSs are viable, stable under laboratory growing conditions, genetically manageable and capable to express heterologous proteins. Having them allows individual analysis and targeting of each TCS, its individual complementation and obtaining information about the sensing systems that can be useful for biotechnological applications based or directed to S. aureus, such as the identification of novel antimicrobials.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a detection means whereby Staphylococcus aureus can be identified at a high accuracy. An aspect of the present invention relates to a medium for detecting S. aureus which comprises one or more kinds of nutrient components, a color developing agent capable of developing a color in the presence of -glucosidase, a color developing agent capable of developing a color in the presence of phosphatase and 0.5 mg/cm.sup.3 or more of sodium colistin methanesulfonate. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a sheet for detecting S. aureus, said sheet comprising the aforesaid medium, and a method for detecting S. aureus with the use of the medium and sheet as described above.

Cell populations, compositions, and methods are provided relating to target priming of macrophage cells. The macrophages, once primed or activated with a microorganism, can be used to prevent or treat infection by the microorganism. Likewise, once primed or activated by a tumor cell or tumor antigen, the macrophage cell can be used to prevent or treat tumor of the same kind. The priming can be carried out in vitro or ex vivo. The macrophages can be isolated from the subject of disease prevention or treatment.

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for treatment of microbial infections and for the enhancement of resistance to infection. The invention comprises administration of an effective amount of a protein isolated from bacterial lysate compositions for the treatment of pathological compositions of microbial infections. The present invention can also be used to enhance the immune system to prevent infections be the administration of an effective amount of compositions.