Microbiology and Immunology

I found a mobile app that automatically counts colonies in seconds. It's amazing

I tested the inhibitory power of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with the well diffusion method, I used nutrient agar for growth media and Mueller Hinton Agar as a inhibitory test medium, for the positive control I used the antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the negative control was ethanol because I used ethanol extract from Moringa leaves. Are control media and sterility tests required as well? Thanks in advance 🙏🏻

I want to apologize first for asking this, But I want to know if any of you know about bacterial growth media.Nutrient agar media when used as a growth medium for Pseudomonas aeruginosa during incubation for more than 24 hours, about 2 days, when viewed again, the results were that the nutrient agar media became slightly darker (became black) And the colonies that were originally white become slightly brownish. Has it been contaminated? I need help for this. Thank you🙏🏻

https://www.nber.org/papers/w29928 https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf4 "While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."

I had always thought that blue cheeses made with Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti, and Penicillium glaucum had at least some antibiotic effect, but Google searches say otherwise: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030254913880 My question is are there any cheeses that do have antibiotic activity?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61078867 Zika virus may be one step away from explosive outbreak By Michelle Roberts Digital health editor Published 3 hours ago Related Topics Zika virus outbreak Image source, EPA Image caption, The virus has been linked to cases of microcephaly A new outbreak of Zika virus is quite possible, warn researchers, with a single mutation potentially enough to trigger an explosive spread. The disease caused a global medical emergency…

I am an academic psychologist, and I have discovered a highly reliable difference between persons without and without paraphilias. (My query does not require understanding what paraphilias are.) This discovery was serendipitous, not hypothesis driven. (In case you're worried, I have followed it up carefully, with preregistered studies, and it holds.) My impression is that many useful medical findings were serendipitous and atheoretical. But I'm not a physician or medical historian, and can't come up with any I'm confident about. (Perhaps plaques in Alzheimer's, although I'm not sure how useful those have ultimately been, or how specific they are.) Anticipating writin…

Hello Everyone, I am making enzyme inhibitors and turning them over to a microbiology laboratory for testing against standard strains of bacteria and fungi. They are performing disk diffusion assays, and seeing a few results that look positive. I would like better to understand the meaning and limitations of this experiment. I would hazard a guess that the compound's concentration falls off at greater distances from the disk, but I don't know how to interpret the diameter of the dead zone in a quantitative way, or even if that is possible. Perhaps there is a good textbook treatment of this subject, for example.

There have been some promising developments regarding Chloroquine (a generic anti-malarial) as a potential treatment for COVID-19. South Korea has apparently begun incorporating it into their treatment regimens, with positive results. Chloroquine (chloroquine diphosphate) allows Zinc to permeate the cell membrane and inhibit the replication of the virus. Here is the full breakdown with citations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7F1cnWup9M

"With the help of advanced laboratory techniques, we were able to identify a panel of nanobodies that very effectively neutralized several variants of SARS-CoV-2," says Gerald McInerney, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, and joint senior author of both studies. Despite the roll-out of vaccines and antivirals, the need for effective therapeutics against severe COVID-19 infection remains high. Nanobodies -- which are fragments of antibodies that occur naturally in camelids and can be adapted for humans -- are promising therapeutic candidates as they offer several advantages over conventional antibodies. Fo…

I've done a bunch of reading on antioxidants - mainly from the perspective of cancer prevention/delayed progression. It seems over the years there is growing consensus that taking antioxidant supplements can do more harm than good in many cases? I won't regurgitate what I've read but in general it seems to be proven Vitamin E and Beta-Carotene can actually increase the risk of cancer. This has something to do (explained in oversimplified terms) of them actually reducing the ability of free radicals to damage cancer cells. I'm sure that is grossly oversimplified and possibly explained wrong, but you get the general theory. I've read they can actually reduce the effect…

Going by current trends in the COVID-19 crisis, it appears that every few months, a new strain emerges. Why this is so I don't know, but if trends are to be believed, then every so often, a new strain of COVID-19 emerges. First the delta strain, now the omnicron strain. It's just a matter of time before the moronic strain emerges. So every time a new strain emerges, will we need a new vaccine to deal with each emerging new strain? Surely theres something about the omnicron strain that the delta strain didnt have, and something about the delta strain that the original corona strain didnt have. And the vaccines were created to counter the original corona s…

Just wanted to chceck with u guys which is the best resources for microbiology for nurses.

It seems to be confirmed now, that Omicron causes a less severe set of symptoms, on average. Any suggestions as to why, when it is clearly far more efficient at infecting a host? My suggestions are 1) That the raised infectiousness somehow causes a quicker and bigger response from the immune system, resulting in a less severe illness. That might be bad news for people with a weakened immune system. 2) Maybe the raised infectiousness means that more vaccinated people are catching it, and that they are getting less ill, and therefore affecting the figures. You could check that out, by looking at the figures for the percentage of vaccinated people who are testing…

We are (all?) washing our hands etc more and doing so with chemicals we hope will degrade coronavirus. So would this lead to the demise of less resistant variants and development of those strains that are more resistant ?

I know this one is far from over, but I'm curious to see what people would do differently with the next one, what lessons we have learned from this one. Here are my own suggestions. 1) Move Heaven and Earth to nip it in the bud. We COULD have done it this time, with more drastic isolation procedures. Right at the start, we had a weakly transmissable virus, with low numbers of cases. A couple of weeks of truly drastic action would have wiped the virus out. In the UK, even with the virus established, with a lockdown, we reduced it from 5,000 cases per day to 398, between april and july 2020. But then they eased off, and now we have 50,000 a day with a much more t…

For those that might be interested. In the area covered by our local district hospital they have now administerd about 245,000 covid vaccinations, mostly Pfizer with some AZ and lately some Moderna. In they started this in January 2020 and since then there have been 3 anaphalactic like reactions, none with serious lasting effects. Of these one proved to be actually an epileptic episode, that would likely have happened anyway and nothing to do with the vaccination. The other two were promptly and successfully dealt with by the attendant medical staff.

According to an FDA briefing on the Moderna Vaccine (mRNA-1273), whose link can be found below, one of the vaccine's ingredients is 1,2-distearoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine [DSPC]. My research tells me DSPC is a phospholipid found in cell membranes and used in the creation of nanoparticles. I want to know where/from what the DSPC is derived from. A straightforward answer or a reference to a source with that information would be much appreciated. https://www.fda.gov/media/144434/download Page 11, Paragraph 3.

Hey, if a person had an immune system consisting of only Th1, Th2, NK-cells, DC and B cells, which type of pathogens would not be cleared/would be fatal? Thank you very much.

Both colds and the flu stem from viruses. However, cold viruses primarily cause respiratory symptoms. Colds rarely cause severe illness and usually do not require professional care. The influenza virus is more serious than the common cold. While it has similar symptoms as a cold, flu symptoms more often include a fever, chills and body aches.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic there have been key findings that have altered our understanding or required responses to this disease. For example, the realization that pre- or asymptomatic persons might be infectious has required a different approach to masking and social distancing. While we have several threads discussing the pandemic, I feel that recent developments justify a new topic, especially as it could be used to clarify potential misunderstandings. With the delta variant (B.1.617.2) gaining dominance we are seeing yet another change that requires us to re-think the trajectory of the pandemic. First of all, the transmission rate of this variant is much h…

Could anybody help me to understand the relationship between thrombo­cytopenia and thrombosis. I was previously thinking that these are two opposite factors, but it turned out that these are cofactors (in vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia and Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia). I read some articles about these but still cannot get it: how low platelet count may lead to thrombosis if thrombosis, by nature, is caused by aggregation of platelets in a vessel and high platelet count may cause thrombosis as well. Thanks!

I have heard that a few doctors are recommending COVID boosters for immunocompromised patients, and that some individuals have taken it upon themselves to take an additional shot. With the sparse data and complete lack of coverage on this, I’m wondering if anyone with experience and expertise in this realm can contribute to the discussion. Specifically, for a patient overall in good health and on immunosuppressives s/p double lung transplant 2013, who has received two doses of Pfizer vaccine and subsequently tested negative for antibodies via rapid blood antigen test 1 month post second dose. My inclination would be to recommend a third/ booster of Moderna. Tho…

How is it to be interpreted in drug trials when the incidence of a condition in a trial is less than in the population? For example, myocarditis in covid-19 vaccines. Someone brought this up elsewhere, and I wondered.

Is the spate of clotting cases in the EU a case of false correlation due to coincidence?