In the image above, red - stained V.
cholerae bacteria (right) exhibit the shape - changing protein (stained green), which the researchers named CrvA.
Epidemiological and DNA studies have shown that the outbreak was caused by the «El Tor» strain of Vibrio
cholerae bacteria probably carried by Nepalese peacekeepers.
Unfortunately, the water's temperature and salinity provide a perfect incubator for
cholera bacteria, and a disease never recorded before in Haiti has now attacked 700,000 people and killed 8500.
Cholera vaccines have had limited success: in 2000, a promising vaccine made from live, weakened
cholera bacteria protected 80 per cent of the North American or European adults who took it, but a much smaller proportion of Indonesians, with protection levels especially low in children.
There are three vaccines, all oral and made of dead
cholera bacteria.
But Nepal also now has 18,000 doses of Shanchol, an oral vaccine made of dead
cholera bacteria by Shantha Biotechnics of Hyderabad, India.
Take
the cholera bacterium that gives us diarrhea or the smallpox virus that makes us develop skin sores; both of these can kill us in days to weeks.
The site is a potpourri of useful material: audio files telling the story of Snow's investigations; an exhaustive collection of Snow's original writing; a vast library of articles written about Snow's legacy; annotated maps of London, including Snow's famous map of the Soho outbreak; short biographies of the major figures in Snow's life; excerpts from books that mention him; dozens of photographs, including images of Snow and landmarks in London related to his life; modern - day scientific explanations of
the cholera bacteria; and much more.
He and colleagues have determined what gives
cholera bacteria their curved shape and whether it matters (a polymer protein, and it does matter; the curve makes it easier for cholera to cause disease), how different wavelengths of light affect movement of photosynthetic bacteria (red and green wavelengths encourage movement; blue light stops the microbes in their tracks), how bacteria coordinate cell division machinery and how photosynthetic bacteria's growth changes in light and dark.
Although
the cholera bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, is usually thought of as a disease - causing organism, most strains never infect people and live freely in estuaries and other brackish waters.
Eventually Fox and her colleagues attached a cocaine molecule to one piece of the deadly toxin produced by
cholera bacteria.
When a Vibrio
cholerae bacterium jostles neighbors in crowds on crab shells, it fires a spring - loaded toxin injection.
Blokesch's lab grew
the cholera bacterium with different sugars (e.g. glucose, sucrose) and starch from potatoes and rice to see how each would affect the cholera toxin genes.
EPFL scientists have now shown that this is indeed the case, as glucose increases the toxicity of
the cholera bacterium, whereas replacing glucose with starch can reduce its toxicity by almost 75 %.
The cholera bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, infects humans by releasing a protein called the «cholera toxin.»
Andrew Camilli of Tufts University in Boston and his team found that ICP1 also has copies of bits of
the cholera bacterium's crucial defensive DNA.
Cholera is now endemic in Haiti, and many people have had exposure to
cholera bacteria and may have some pre-existing level of immunity.
The first level of contact with live
cholera bacteria — or their dead counterparts contained in oral cholera vaccines — occurs in the mucosa of the gut.
The research found that filaments of CrvA assemble on one side of a V.
cholerae bacterium, forming a hard polymer that slows growth on that side of the cell.
When drinking water is not filtered properly, they can transmit
cholera bacteria directly to humans.
Richard Pfeiffer demonstrates the rapid killing of
cholera bacteria in the cell - free serum of immunized guinea pigs («Pfeiffer's phenomenon»), providing further evidence for the humoral theory of immunity.
Not exact matches
Cholera is an intestinal infection that is caused by a
bacteria called Vibrio
cholerae which is found in contaminated water in places with contaminated water and poor sanitation.
An 1884 newspaper illustration, for example, depicted a skeleton disguised as a fruit seller offering produce to little children, suggesting that raw, unboiled fruits and vegetables led to
cholera.17 The actual culprit, especially in such turn - of - the - century urban metropolises as New York City, with its inadequate, overloaded water and sewer systems, was most likely
bacteria residing on the outside of the produce, or contaminated water or milk that happened to be ingested, rather than anything in the produce itself.18 Given the laxative effect of fruits and vegetables if consumed in excess, however, it is understandable that people assumed fresh produce might contribute to diseases with symptoms that included diarrhea.
When oral hydration doesn't work for the diarrheal disease,
cholera, caused by the comma - shaped
bacterium Vibrio
cholera, can sometimes be treated by intravenous fluids and antibiotics.
But in a
cholera outbreak, many catch and spread the
bacteria without getting sick, making it hard to tell who will still benefit from vaccine.
«We don't completely understand why those species occur during
cholera infection, but that phenomenon may offer clues as to why we observe different species of gut
bacteria among humans in different parts of the world.
«The results for the mid-stage
cholera group, which included
bacteria usually less abundant in the developing world, were probably the most interesting,» says LaRocque, an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Human feces is teeming with
bacteria and parasites responsible for diseases such as diarrhea,
cholera, and intestinal worms.
Instead, another
bacterium the team looked at, a close relative of Vibrio
cholerae, the
bacterium that causes
cholera, has evolved a motor with only intermediate power.
Yet some
cholera scientists — including Rita Colwell, seen by many as a giant in the field — contended that the
bacteria had more likely been present in local waters, and that the outbreak had been triggered by a combination of environmental factors.
One aid group working in Haiti is turning to SMS text messaging to ensure Haitians are keeping their drinking water free of
cholera - causing
bacteria
So people who have built up immunity to
cholera could not fight off the new strain because their immune systems were fooled into ignoring the
bacterium.
Dutch researchers say the new strain arose when the
bacterium that usually causes
cholera borrowed genes from a normally harmless strain.
They were analyzing the DNA sequences of tiny viruses called bacteriophages (literally, «
bacteria eaters») lurking in the stool samples of
cholera patients.
We are now getting a real sense of how
cholera is moving across the globe, and with that information we can inform improved control strategies as well as basic science to better understand how a simple
bacterium continues to pose such a threat to human health.»
The scientists found that both the activity of the genes, as well as the production of the
cholera toxin itself were increased when the
bacterium was fed with glucose, but they were considerably decreased when it was fed with starch from rice.
Cholera is caused when the
bacterium Vibrio
cholerae infects the small intestine, resulting in severe diarrhea and vomiting, which can result in dehydration and death.
He studied two types of disease - causing
bacteria, Vibrio
cholerae — the infectious agent behind
cholera — and Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause various infections such as abscesses and hospital infections.
Last year, for instance, a team led by aquatic ecologist Gregory Ruiz of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, found that ballast water from ships entering the Chesapeake Bay contained Vibrio
cholerae, the
bacterium that causes
cholera.
Because clay can bind
bacteria and viruses, it may also protect both mother and fetus from food - borne pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Vibrio
cholerae.
It turns out the practice of wiping with shared sponges, a few per communal restroom usually sitting in a water basin, was an efficient means of spreading
bacteria, possibly promoting diseases like typhoid and
cholera.
Nor are negative water tests conclusive:
cholera researchers say the
bacteria are hard to find in fast - flowing rivers.
Parker suspects that it acts as a reservoir of healthy, protective
bacteria that can replenish the intestine after a
bacteria - depleting diarrheal illness like
cholera.
The new finding, announced today in the journal Science, opens up a novel approach to designing drugs to fight other
bacteria, such as those that cause pneumonia, ear infections,
cholera and Lyme disease.
Vibrio
cholerae, a comma - shaped
bacterium that contaminates water and food, can kill fast.
Princeton University researchers have identified the protein that allows Vibrio
cholerae — the
bacteria behind the life - threatening disease
cholera — to morph into a corkscrew shape that allows them to more effectively penetrate their victims» intestines.
Significantly, Salama said, the researchers found that CrvA localizes to the periplasm, a cellular compartment between the outer and inner membrane of Gram - negative
bacteria such as V.
cholerae.
If shape plays a critical role in V.
cholerae infection, then
cholera treatments could be developed that either impede the
bacteria's ability to morph, or alter a patient's gut so that the
bacteria can't infect it, said corresponding author Zemer Gitai, Princeton's Edwin Grant Conklin Professor of Biology and professor of molecular biology.
The researchers discovered the protein that allows the
bacterium Vibrio
cholerae to morph into a corkscrew shape that likely helps it twist into — and then escape — the protective mucus that lines the inside of the gut.
One of the places that the
bacterium Vibrio
cholerae hides is on minuscule crustaceans called copepods.