Citations

Abstract Background Leptotrichia spp. are anaerobic, gram-negative bacilli that are part of the normal oral and intestinal microbiota. Although traditionally considered non-pathogenic, these bacteria can result in invasive infections including bacteremia in immunosuppressed patients, particularly those with neutropenia. There are limited published data to inform best management strategies in those with Leptotrichia bacteremia. Methods All cases of Leptotrichia spp. bacteremia between January 2012 and 2022 at our tertiary academic medical center were retrospectively reviewed to determine patient risk factors, clinical outcomes, and antimicrobial susceptibilities. Descriptive statistical methods were used. Antimicrobial susceptibilities were performed by agar dilution. Results 26 cases of Leptotrichia spp. bacteremia were identified (Figure 1). The mean patient age was 55 years (SD 17), with 9 female patients (35%). All 26 patients were immunocompromised, predominantly due to hematologic malignancy (69%) or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (23%) (HSCT). 25 of 26 patients were actively neutropenic, with a median duration of neutropenia of 21 days (13-26) (Table 1). The most frequent sources of Leptotrichia bacteremia were gastrointestinal translocation (60%), followed by catheter-related infection (35%). 10 patients had polymicrobial bacteremia (38.5%). The primary antibiotics utilized to treat Leptotrichia bacteremia included metronidazole (42%), piperacillin-tazobactam (27%), and carbapenems (19%). Overall, the mean duration of treatment was 11 days, with a 60-day all-cause mortality of 19% (Table 1) with no cases of microbiologic relapse. In the 22 clinical isolates evaluated for susceptibility, Leptotrichia spp. were largely susceptible to metronidazole, penicillin, ertapenem, and piperacillin-tazobactam, but uniformly resistant to moxifloxacin (Table 2). Figure 1:Leptotrichia spp. identified as cause of bacteremia in 26 patientsTable 1:Baseline characteristics of patients with Leptotrichia bacteremia (n=26) between January 2012 to January 2022Table 2:Antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the Leptotrichia spp. (n=22) Conclusion Leptotrichia spp. may be a rare cause of bacteremia in neutropenic hosts, particularly those with underlying hematologic malignancies and HSCT. The pathogen has a favorable susceptibility profile to penicillins and carbapenems, but has high degree of resistance to fluoroquinolones. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

Abstract Background We have previously reported on a US based national surveillance study from 6 geographically dispersed medical centers for the susceptibility and epidemiology of C. difficile isolates. This current survey was conducted with isolates collected in 2020-21 with specific attention to the susceptibility to ridinilazole as well as nine comparators. A summary of the susceptibilities of 300 isolates of C. difficile tested against 10 antimicrobial agents Methods in 2020-21 C. difficile isolates or stools from patients with C. difficile toxin positive antibiotic associated diarrhea were collected in 6 US medical centers and referred to a central lab. After confirmation of 300 isolates antibiotic susceptibilities were determined by agar dilution method (CLSI M11-A9) against 10 agents listed in Table below. Ribotyping was performed by PCR capillary gel electrophoresis on all isolates. Results A summary of the susceptibilities of the 300 isolates against 10 antimicrobial agents are shown in the Table. The most common ribotype was 014-020 (14.4% compared to 11.8% in 2016), followed by 106 (10%, compared to 15% in 2016), 027 (10% compared to 13.1% in 2016), 002 (8% compared to 8.5% in 2016, 078-126 (4.3% compared to 1.3% in 2016). Ridinilazole was very potent against all isolates collected in the US with an MIC 90 of 0.25 mcg/ml, including against all the hypervirulent ribotypes as well as those isolates with antibiotic resistances to other antibiotics in the test panel. Conclusion Ridinilazole showed excellent in-vitro activity against C. difficile isolates in the US, independent of ribotype. There has been a striking change in ribotype distribution compared to 2016, accompanied by a reduction in C. difficile resistance to moxifloxacin and imipenem. Disclosures Cheleste M. Thorpe, MD, Actelion: Grant/Research Support|Deinove: Advisor/Consultant|General Mills: Grant/Research Support|Merck: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Summit: Advisor/Consultant|Summit: Grant/Research Support Stuart Johnson, M.D., Ferring Pharmaceuticals: Membership on Ferring Publication Steering Committee|Ferring Pharmaceuticals: Employee|Summit Plc: Advisor/Consultant Dale N. Gerding, MD, Destiny Pharma plc.: Advisor/Consultant Karen C. Carroll, MD, Abbott Diagnostics: Advisor/Consultant|BD Diagnostics: Advisor/Consultant|BD Diagnostics: Grant/Research Support|BioRad, Inc: Grant/Research Support|Meridian Biosciences: Grant/Research Support|Roche Diagnostics: Advisor/Consultant|Scanogen, Inc: Advisor/Consultant|Scanogen, Inc: Grant/Research Support|Thermo Fisher, Inc: Advisor/Consultant Kevin W. Garey, PharmD, MS, Acurx: Grant/Research Support|cidara: Advisor/Consultant|cidara: Grant/Research Support|Paratek: Grant/Research Support|Seres Health: Grant/Research Support|Summit: Grant/Research Support Esther Duperchy, PhD, Summit Plc: Employee David R. Snydman, MD, Merck: Advisor/Consultant|Merck and Company: Grant/Research Support|Prolacta: Advisor/Consultant|Prolacta: Grant/Research Support|Seres: Advisor/Consultant|Seres Health: Grant/Research Support|Summit Plc: Grant/Research Support|Takeda: Advisor/Consultant|Takeda: Grant/Research Support|Visterra: Advisor/Consultant.

Abstract Posterior Fossa Group A (PFA) ependymomas are pediatric brain tumors with extremely poor survival outcomes. As protein-coding mutations in PFA are exceedingly rare, the underlying etiology of these tumors remains elusive. Elevated CpG island methylation and depletion of H3K27me3 have been described in PFA, leading to the hypothesis that PFA may be driven by a dysregulated epigenetic state. In this study, we sought to determine how three-dimensional (3D) genome features (such as DNA loops, domains, and compartments) differ between pediatric brain tumors. We performed Hi-C sequencing on a collection of 64 patient specimens and patient-derived primary cultures that collectively span multiple subgroups of ependymoma, medulloblastoma, high-grade glioma, and non-neoplastic brain. For certain samples, we further performed RNA-seq, histone modification ChIP-seq, or whole-genome bisulfite sequencing to allow multiomic data integration. Overall, the 3D genome organization of PFA samples appeared distinct from other tumor types. We identified and defined TULIPs: a subset of type B compartments, separated by genomic distances greater than 10 Mbp, that exhibit a striking fivefold increase in reciprocal interaction strength. These TULIPs recurred at the same genomic positions across the vast majority of PFA samples with minimal representation among other tumor or non-tumor samples. TULIPs displayed enrichment for heterochromatic features such as H3K9me3 and late replication timing and were depleted of euchromatic features such as H3K27ac and protein-coding genes. By using immuno-fluorescence for H3K9me3 and oligo-FISH to label TULIP regions, we demonstrated that TULIP regions are more compact in PFA than other tumors. Finally, by applying inhibitors of H3K9 lysine methylation to PFA cultures we showed that TULIPs become more diffuse and cell viability is reduced. Altogether, this work defines TULIPs as highly recurrent epigenetic features of PFA tumors.

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates are a serious public health concern due to their resistance to nearly all or all of the available antibiotics, including carbapenems. Utilizing molecular approaches in conjunction with antibiotic susceptibility prediction software warrants investigation for use in the clinical laboratory workflow.

The accurate detection of point mutations from pathology slides using sequencing data is of great importance in cancer genomics and precision oncology. Formalin-fixation paraffin-embedding (FFPE) is a widely used technique to preserve pathology tissues. The FFPE process introduces artificial C > T mutations in next-generation sequencing, so we set out to develop excerno , a method to score and filter such spurious variants. FFPE mutational artifacts follow a mutational signature. By using the FFPE signature and Bayes' formula, we can calculate the probability of a mutation resulting from the FFPE process and use this probability to filter FFPE variants. We implement this method as the excerno R package. We tested excerno by simulating mutations across all 60-baseline mutational signatures from the Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) and combining them with mutations following the FFPE mutational signature. The sensitivity and specificity of excerno are adversely affected by the cosine similarity between the baseline and FFPE signatures ( c o s F F P E ). Higher percentages of FFPE mutations ( p c t F F P E ) result in increased sensitivity and reduced specificity. The specificity and sensitivity of excerno can be predicted as linear model with an interaction term using c o s F F P E and p c t F F P E , with an R 2 o f 0 . 8 4 and 0.79, respectively. Finally, we tested excerno using six RNA sequencing cancer samples and observed concordant trends of specificity and sensitivity with respect to our simulated data. The excerno R package can be used to annotate and filter FFPE-induced mutations in cancer genomics. Our method is adversely affected by c o s F F P E and p c t F F P E .