Mycobacterium tuberculosis is responsible for two million deaths per year and infects one third of the global population throughout their lifetime (Sharma, 2006). The highest prevalence of tuberculosis infection throughout the world is in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (Raviglione et al, 1995).
Difficulties in Treatment
Emergence of multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis
Up until approximately 1984, the prevalence of tuberculosis was rapidly decreasing by an average of 6% per year. However, beginning in 1985, this decline reversed itself and the prevalence of Tuberculosis started to rapidly increase. One of the reasons for this increase in prevalence is the emergence of a multi-drug resistant form of tuberculosis.(Dooley 1992). These strains have been termed multi-drug resistant due to their resistance to both major anti-tuberculosis drugs known as rifampicin and isoniazid(Zager, 2008). Resistance to these drugs result primarily from incorrect drug prescription from health providers, lack of access to drug supply, improper adherence by patients, and poor quality control for drugs (Shah et al, 2007).
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However, another important factor to consider is the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus. As described in the graph above, as HIV emerged and began to continuously become more prevalent, so did the prevalence of Tuberculosis. It is possible that not only can HIV increase the risk of reactivating a latent form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but it also increase the speed of Tuberculosis progression (Corbett et al, 2003). In addition, it is hypothesized that HIV infection could possibly lead to malabsorption of anti-tuberuclosis drugs and led to the acquisit...
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...ible for the role that Valine 215 and Isoleucine 214 accomplish in establishing the hydrophobicity of KasB. Additionally, the importance of Valine 215 and Isoleucine 214 was further solidified when the replacement of these residues with Alanine 211 led to the loss of hydrophobicity of the entire core (Sudharsan et al, 2007).
Tunnel
As previously mentioned, Thiolactomycin was found to bind poorly to KasB enzyme. In part, this is due to unique positioning of Arg 200 (highlighted in pink) which binds β6 and α10. This causes an apparent elongation of α10 (highlighted in green) which then causes an axial shift towards the surface of the protein. Subsequently, results in Arg 213 (highlighted in cyan) further shifted toward surface. Furthermore, this causes the opening of the tunnel become more restricted which may have prevent the entrance of drugs such as Thiolactomycin.
Moreover, the class average curve shows a similar trend, as the curve flattens, at 70% but with an enzyme activity of 5.3 x10-3 seconds. This indicates that even though the saturation point is the same it was considerably lower than our results, which could indicate sources of systematic error in the design of the practical.
The only true risk that an AIDS patient would find would be the increase of
Legionnaires’ disease is an infectious disease caused most often by the bacteria Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila). The disease resembles severe pneumonia. Legionnaires’ disease is sometimes called “Legion Fever.” It was first discovered in 1976 when there was a pneumonia outbreak among people attending a convention of the American Legion in Philidelphia. In January of 1977 the bacteria was discovered as the causative agent of the outbreak. While outbreaks receive substantial media attention, thousands of people are exposed to the bacteria each year and never have any serious signs or symptoms of the disease. The elderly, immunocompromised and smokers are the most susceptible. Most outbreaks that do occur are in the summer when water temperatures naturally rise. Fatality rate of the disease ranges from 5 to 30 percent (The Mayo Clinic, 2008).
Drug resistance in mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) has become a severe global health threat. The fight against TB is now facing major challenges due to the appearance of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and more recently, the virtually untreatable Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB). MDR-TB are strains that are resistant to both top first-line drugs, Isoniazid and Rifampin, while XDR-TB are MDR-TB strains that are also resistant to any fluoroquinolone and one or more of 3 injectable drugs. With this new resistance, there emerges a great need to find new drugs that are as effective, yet bypass the problem of resistance. One method of research is to find new vulnerabilities of tuberculosis to use as new target sites of drugs. This method is highly expensive (Scheffler, Colmer, Tynan, Demain, & Gullo, 2013), and requires intense and lengthy research just to implicate the new target site. An alternative is to develop new drugs that work on the same already known target as the first-line drugs, but by a different mechanism, thereby bypassing the resistance of the TB to the drug.
Tuberculosis has many forms that can invade the body. Many cures involve drugs and multiple combinations of the drugs. Drugs are used in combinations because tuberculosis can travel to different parts of the body. One of the causes for the spread of tuberculosis around the world is the emergence drug- resistance strain. Tuberculosis can become resistant to most, if not all, of the drugs that are used to treat tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis or known as TB remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world, especially in developing countries. A combination of factors including high costs, limited resources and the poor performance of various diagnostic tests make the diagnosis of TB difficult in developing countries. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), one third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis. In 2012, nearly nine million people around the world become sick with tuberculosis disease, and there were around one point three million TB related deaths worldwide.
This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1). Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die.
...Department of Health and Human Services of United States proposed a goal to completely abolish tuberculosis from the Earth by 2010. However, several Missouri counties have stated tuberculosis' recent rise and saying it still is a threat as it is airborne and infectious; tuberculosis will persist to be a peril to humanity (Nochlin, 2010). People still need to defeat various obstacles to reach that goal as AIDS and TB are cooperating to kill victims faster as well as intensifying the dangers of certain TB. Different parts of the world are also in danger, including India and Africa and Africa is particularly in great danger. Twenty-five million there are HIV-positive and 200 million are infected with inactive TB (Zimmerman, 2003). Certainly, these statistics forecast an inevitable massacre and the white death may become the greatest health disaster in human history.
Thesis: With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming said, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the patient but also the physician.
There are many medical professionals who believe that the rise of antibiotic resistance is a result of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Dr. Jim Wilde, a paediatric emergency medicine physician at the Medical College of Georgia believes that the medical profession is losing the war against resistance...
Throughout many years tuberculosis has atrociously affected the lives of many people. Many have suffered a horrible death due to this horrid disease. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease due to mycobacterium tuberculosis, which initiated about one hundred fifty million years ago. Skeletal abnormalities typical for tuberculosis were found in Egyptian mummies back in 2400 BC. In ancient Greece the Greeks seemed very familiar with tuberculosis only they called it Phtisis. Many years later a disease that was called “ scrofula” was described to be a certain form of tuberculosis. It was referred to as “king’s evil” in England and France, and they believed it could be cured by a royal touch. This practice was put to an end in the year 1714.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) first came to light in 1981. There has been a long and arduous global effort on the prevention of HIV/AIDS. HIV is a virus that is spread through body fluids that affect the specific T-cells of the immune system. Without treatment HIV infection leads to AIDS and there is no cure for AIDS. HIV infection can be controlled and the importance of primary pre...
Wines, M. 2007. Virulent TB in South Africa may imperil millions. New York Time. January 8. Accessed online at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/world/africa/28tuberculosis.html?pagewanted=all
Tuberculosis has plagued mankind for a long time. This disease, which was previously believed to be eradicated, has once again shown up and begun attacking the lives of many humans. Tuberculosis infects a third of the population and kills a fraction of them. Many approaches have been used including different varieties of infection control, bodily defenses, and treatments to try to protect humans from tuberculosis. The best way to prevent tuberculosis infections is to contain the source of tuberculosis. The most common source of tuberculosis infection is from infected humans. By diagnosing, containing, and treating people with latent tuberculosis before they get active, contagious tuberculosis, tuberculosis can be quickly contained. Once someone has been diagnosed with TB, they should be placed under isolation.
The disease can be caused by different mycobacterium such as Mycobacterium bovis, M. africanum, M. canettii, M. microti, and most commonly, M. tuberculosis; although the five are highly similar and are together termed the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). Recently, two additional organisms. Mycobacterium pinnipedii and Mycobacterium caprae have also been implicated with the disease in humans. 6, 7 Members of the MTBC are gram-positive, long, rod-shaped bacterium with unique characteristics such as an exceptionally slow growth rate and a high content of lipids in their cell wall which provide protection against degradation and may account for their persistent survival in the environment even after the death of a host. 8