Microbiology and Immunology

Hello, I read that bacteria that live in our gut are able to synthetize some vitamins. My question is: if we are in poor nutritional status, are they still able to do it? For example, I was thinking about niacin (vitamin B3): in order to produce it, we have to start from tryptophan, so if we don't eat enough tryptophan-containing foods, we are not able to synthetize this vitamin. But are our gut bacteria still capable of doing it? Thanks in advance.

Hi there, I heard for some infectious diseases, e.g. mumps, one does not need to receive vaccination if has already got the infection. This person is immunized due to the presence of the germ in the body while having the infection. His/her body had time to develop B cells, T cells and the rest of the machinery to fight the disease in case of a new challenge. My question is about HPV, one can get the infection and develop symptoms later on, sometimes years after the infection began. Why then does the body fail to clear the infection on its own? Isn't it the same concept so that the body makes immune cells that can fight the virus at some point even during the course o…

How was this Method is helpful in the identification of bacterial Base paire sequencing or bacterial identification.

hi i have a question for any immunologists, does any one know of any protein, detectable by western blot, that are localised to the T cell nucleus regardless of T cell activation? I'm doing a cell fractionation and i need to confirm that the nuclear fraction does indeed contain the nucleus. thanks.

Does anyone who has knowledge about vaccinations and or cancer have any ideas on the matter of cancer being linked possibly to vaccinations...any vaccines and any cancer too. Not just limited to a specific type of cancer or vaccine, just in general could there be a link between vaccines and cancer? This is not a 'crap' font...Don't read my posts then. And I didn't HEAR anything. I HAVE IDEAS OF MY OWN! I was asking a question, you shouldn't answer questions. Thanks for your opinion but I know what a vaccine is.

Hi all! I'm a PhD student in the Netherlands and I'm in my second year... hence I'm really starting to worry about my PhD project. It's about developing an in vitro testing method for a vaccine that is already commercialized and in use - only they need to test the batch-to-batch variation on mice, and they'd like to switch to cells. Long story short: the products I've been given have proved to be toxic on my cells. One product is the final vaccine, which has a very low viral protein concentration (3 ug/ml) and high alum concentration (2 g/l); the other is the non-adsorbed vaccine (no alum), with a higher protein concentration (60 ug/ml) but also high sucrose concentr…

I've read about how urine germs and fecal germs are launched into the air when a toilet is flushed. If those germs land on clothing, how long are they likely to live on there if the clothing is kept dry and hasn't been washed since? The "incident" happened 2 months ago and i didn't have diahorrea but possibly had a UTI at the time. Thanks

I just had a quick-ish question: My son gets these weird spots. They look like bug bites in the beginning (red, swollen with a whitish bump in the middle) but these bumps don't seem to irritate my 2 year old at all. Then after a few hours the spot is no longer swollen but it turns into a brownish slightly raised bump that never goes away. He has 10+ of them and some of them have been there for a year and a half. They occasionally re-swell, bit again don't seem to irritate my son at all. I've been to doctors and dermatologists and no one knows what it could be. Any ideas?

I have read that if I were to inject animal blood into myself my body would reject it and the results could be disastrous. Why is it that I can eat animal meat without causing an immune reaction yet I can’t introduce animal cells into my blood stream? thanks for reading!

What causes excess heat production heat production on a cellular level? Can it be related to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction?

Hi, I am working on a large number of microbial strains and would like to study their effects on the induction of G-CSF production by cells. Do you have any idea about a more general technique for their screening, before I start perfoming the ELISA? Thank you.

This first picture shows a gram stain of 2 unknown bacteria (one is gram +, and one is gram -). At first, it appeared that both the gram positive and gram negative bacteria were cocci. I then isolated the gram + from the gram - by plating on a phenylethyl alcohol agar and a MacConkey Agar. But the next pictures seem to show the gram negative bacteria (on the MacConkey Agar) to be bacilli...? What do you guys think these bacteria are? I'm pretty much positive that the gram positive bacteria is cocci, but I'm not sure about the gram negative... :/ Thanks for your help!!! This is the gram + unknown bacteria (plated on the phenylethyl alcohol agar). I'd …

In Nasal sprays they often use xylometazoline or oxymetazoline. Do they bind on different receptors on the cell-membrane??

Anyone recognise the organism(?) responsible for the "cloud" in the urine sample? Seems to be phototropic. Cheers

For a particular germ, there may be a particular ultraviolet wavelength that is more effective for disabling/killing it. What is known about exposure times ? Is it in the seconds, minutes, hours ? If using a wavelength that is not optimal for a particular germ; what is known about effectiveness by lengthening exposure time or increasing intensity ? Edited. found 10 seconds to be effective. Surprisingly short time. But does not specify when wavelenght is shifted. "The exposure of germicidal ultraviolet is the product of time and intensity. High intensities for a short period and low intensities for a long period are fundamentally equal in letha…

Hi, I am a research student currently in high school. I am doing a project looking at the ability for antibodies to attack certain antigens. I need the amino acid sequence of the antibody for the drug heroin, if anyone is familiar with the sequence, please let me know or let me where I can attain that sequence. Once, I get that amino acid sequence, I need to be able to develop a 3D structure of that antibody. If anyone is familiar with an online program that does that, please let me know. I also need a somewhat simple computer program that I can use to determine the binding rate of an antigen to an antibody(in this case, heroin and its antibody). Please let me know if you…

I have no doubt that getting vaccinated is beneficial. However, the efficacy of vaccinations can be as low as 30%. One of the factors that is essential is the efficacy of an individual's immune system. It varies from person to person, and in some cases, mainly as related to age, it may not function at all, such as in neonates or at old age. Vaccination initiates development of humoral immunity (the body produces antibodies against given antigen), with cell-mediated immunity involving memory T-lymphocytes. However, another way to obtain immunity is to transfer the actual antibodies between individuals. This opens a possibility of immunizing individuals with an i…

Hey, what is the difference between serogroup and serotype?

I purchased a Steripen handheld UV water purifier. It uses UV light to treat water that may be contaminated. The claim is that the UV radiation damages the microorganism in a way that prevents reproduction, and that microbes that can't reproduce can't make you sick. But from my memory of Microbiology class many years ago, I recall that some bacteria release endotoxins that cause illness. So I'm thinking that even if I used this device on a glass of lake water that had a significant amount of bacteria, they still might dump endotoxins into my system if the cells are lysed in my stomach acid. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Are suppressor T-cells CD4+ or CD8+ cells? I've looked at looks of different sources and they seem to say different things. Are they a subset of one of the two types of T-cell?

I am trying to research vomiting on google, however the websites lack helpful data. For instance, if a human is vomitting yellow, they call it bile reflux. But this doesn't make sense, because if the patient has cramping, and yet the online symptoms of bile reflux doesn't say anything about cramping, then it is probably not bile reflux. First of all, lets say a patient has normal vomitting, but then vomitting bile, and cramps, well is it norovirus or the stomach flu, or is it maybe something else? Because lets say the first vomit doesnt smell like regular vomit, but a bit like rotten eggs or feces.

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post herpetic neuralgia cannot be cured according to 'google scholar' medical articles and research as the immune system has already been compromised. Does anyone know any different?

I'm currently working on a research project which aims to identify cyanbacterial species present on moss leaves through morphological and molecular methods (polyphasic approach to cyanobacterial identification). The genera in question are Nostoc, Stigonema, Cylindrospermum, and Calothrix. My question is, is anyone aware of a technique which can be used to separate bacteria based on size, charge, or other morphological characteristics? We have been attempting to culture the various cyanobacteria on agar, which has its drawbacks. I'd like to find way to identify the actual cyanobacterial species/strains growing epiphytically on the moss, as opposed to working with…