E. faecalis isolated from the feces of healthy volunteers were either sensitive to or highly resistantto cefotaxime, gentamicin, erythromycin and minocycline.
There were more strains with β-haemolytic activity in the resistant group than in the sensitive group, and more strains with protease activity in the cefotaxime-and erythromycin-resistant group than in the cefotaxime-and erythromycin-sensitive group. Such tendency, however, was not seen in the gentamicin-or minocycline-resistant group. Overall, the number of the strain with β-haemolytic and protease activities was greater among the faecalis resistant to all four antibiotics than among those sensitive to all four antibiotics.

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Recently E. faecalis has often been isolated from infections in the field of surgery. We have investigated the frequency of isolation and background factors of this organism from patients with postoperative infection at the Second Department of Surgery of the Hospital attached to the Osaka City University Medical School.
The yearly frequency of isolation of E. faecalis from the postoperative infections has tended to increase during the period 1976-84 and reached a peak of 61.1% in 1982. The organism was most frequently isolated from those of colon or rectum, the next most common sites being from those of liver or bile duct.
E. faecalis was isolated from 56 patients (11 of whom were dead) but was not considered a causative organism in the majority, rather as an opportunistic pathogen since a lot of the patients were immuno-compromised. Most patients has polymicrobial infections and were treated with cephems. However, the strains of E. faecalis isolated in this study showed a decreased susceptibility not only to widely used antibiotics such as ampicillin and cefazolin but also to cephamycins and the third generation cephalosporins.

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The influence of cefbuperazone (CBPZ) on the synergetic bactericidal effect with serum complement was investigated. One-forth of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CBPZ increased the killing activity of gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens, but no synergetic bactericidal effect of CBPZ with serum complement was observed on gram-positive bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus.
E.coli was also killed by congenitally deficient C 9 serum (C 9 D). The killing activity of C 9 D was weaker than that of NHS; the killing activity of 10% C 9 D was equivalent to that of 2.5% NHS.
CBPZ increased the killing activity of E. coli by C 9 D, and when 10% C 9 D was used with 1/4 MIC of CBPZ, 10⁴ E. coli was completely killed within 4 hours after incubation.
It is concluded that CBPZ has the synergetic effect on E. coli with serum complement before C 9 activation.

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Host-mediated antiviral effect of 2-carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide (Ge-132) against murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) was evaluated in mice. When treated with 10 mg of Ge-132 on day 3 and 1 before virus inoculation, the mice survived the challenge by 5.0×10⁵ PFU of MCMV.
The protective effect was manifested as improvement of mortarity, decrease in the infectious viruses replicated in the target organs, induction of interferon (IFN) in serum, but without apparent augmentation of NK cell activity. No virocidal or virostatic activity of Ge-132 on the MCMV was evidenced in vitro. Thus, Ge-132-induced resistance against MCMV seems to be hostmediated and it correlated with elevated serum IFN, which inhibited replication of MCMV in the target organs, especially in the liver, and strbsequently saved the mice from death.

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Suppressive effect of the combination use of lentinan with chemotherapeutic agent on the metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma was examined.
About the administration timing of lentinan, it is more effective to administrate lentinan after the tumor amputation.
In the case of tegafur or cyclophosphamide, chemotherapeutic agent is better to administrate before operation in combination with post-operative administration of lentinan. On the contrary, bleomycin on mitomycin C is better to administrate together with lentinan, post-operatively. In the combination use of lentinan with tegafur at high dose, about 70% of treated mouse were cured completely from pulmonary metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma in suitable condition.
These data strongly suggest the effectiveness of the combination use of lentinan with chemotherapeutic agent on the suppression of tumor metastasis in cancer therapy.

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Cefusonam (CZON) is a new semi-synthetic cephalosporin antibiotic which possesses effective broad antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative organisms, especially against S. aureus and MRSA which resist other third generation cephems.
CZON in amount of 1.0 g was administered by one-shot intravenous injection before a surgery of hip joint in number 29 cases. Bone marrow blood and venous blood were taken during the operation. CZON was assayed by cylinder-cup method using E. coli NIHJ and compared with that of serum obtained at the same time of sampling.
The highest concentration in bone marrow was detected as high as 108μg/ml at 15 min after injection, at which time, that of serum was 84μg/ml. The lowest concentration in bone marrow blood was 1.22μg/ml and 3.33μg/ml in serum at 245 rnin after injection. The ratio of concentration in bone marrow to serum appeared to be constant and independent to the sampling time. Bone marrow concentration (Y) was in good positive correlation with serum concentration (X), the equation of linear regression being Y=1.19 X-2.71.
It will be concluded that CZON can easily infiltrate into the bone marrow blood and that it is not only a suitable antibiotic for treatment of infectious disease of bone, but also an advantageous drug as particularly prophylactic use at the time of surgery.

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Recently, the number of β-lactamase producing organisms isolated from urinary tract infections has increased. This phenomenon is almost certainly because of the extremely high usage of β-lactam antibiotics, and it has created a need for the development of antimicrobial agents which are stable to β-lactamases. BRL 28500, which is a new formulation of a β-lactam antibiotic, ticarcillin (TIPC), and a β-lactamase inhibitor, clavulanic acid (CVA) (ratio of TIPC to CVA is 15:1), is a promising new antimicrobial agent. In vitro studies have already shown this preparation to have strong activity against β-lactamase producing organisms.
We carried out a well-controlled comparison of BRL 28500, ticarcillin (TIPC) and cefoperasone (CPZ) in the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections in the following manner. Patients who were over 16 years old and had an underlying urinary tract disease, bacteriuria of more than 104 CFU/ml and pyuria of more than 5 WBCs/HPF (×400) of urine were randomly assigned to receive 1.6 g of BRL 28500, 1.5 g of TIPC or 1.0 g of CPZ twice a day for 5 days by intravenous injection. The overall clinical efficacy of each regimen was evaluated according to the criteria proposed by the “UTI Committee in Japan” as excellent, moderate or poor (including failed cases) based on the improvement in both the bacteriuria and pyuria.
A total of 476 patients were treated, and 110, 124 and 119patients received BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ, respectively, were found to be evaluable for the clinical efficacy. No significant differences in various background characteristics were observed among the treatment groups. The efficacy rates, which were calculated based on the excellent and moderate responses, were 64.5%, 47.6%, and 53.8%, in the BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ patient groups.
The efficacy rate with BRL 28500 (64.5%) was significantly higher than that with TIPC (47.6%), but no significant difference was observed between the efficacies of BRL 28500 and CPZ, or TIPC and CPZ. Especially in the patients with polymicrobial infections and patients with monomicrobial infections due to indwelling catheters, the efficacy rate with BRL 28500 was found to be significantly higher than that with TIPC.
Bacteriologically, the eradication rates with BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ were 84%, 75% and 76%, respectively. Although the eradication rate with BRL 28500 was the highest, no significant differences were observed among those eradication rates. However, against E. coli, and gram-negative rode as a whole, BRL 28500 showed significantly higher eradication rates than did TIPC. Against β-lactamase producing organisms, the eradication rate with BRL 28500 (83.9%) was also higher than those with TIPC (72.3%) and CPZ (73.7%). This tendency was particularly clear in relation to β-lactamase producing gram-negative rods.
Especially against Klebsiello app. strains producing large amounts of β-lactamase, BRL 28500 and CPZ also exhibited higher eradication rates (100%, 91% respectively) than TIPC (33%). The eradication rate with BRL 28500 against β-lactamase highly-producing E. coli (100%) was also revealed to be much higher than that with TIPC (40%).
Clinical adverse reactions, consisting mainly of gastrointestinal and allergic reactions, were observed in 1, 3 and 7 cases in the BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ treatment groups, respectively. Laboratory adverse reactions, mainly hepatic function disorders, were recorded in 12, 5 and 6 cases in the BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ groups. These adverse reactions were all mild and transient, and the treatment groups showed no significant differences in the appearance rates of those reactions. The patients' tolerance of each of BRL 28500, TIPC and CPZ was thus good.

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