Theoretical Solution for Anthrax

[verno]

http://scienceray.com/biology/microbiology/theoretical-solution-for-anthrax/

 

Is it possible that you can completely elimanate pathogenic bacteria with the help of a virus?

 

Theoretically, can't this virus destroy the bacteria?

[CharonY]

Viruses can kill bacteria, but almost inevitably there will be resistant bacteria. It is good for destroying e.g. a monoclonal lab culture (which are all genetically identical). But destroying a wild-type population is very unlikely to happen.

[insane_alien]

mmm, bacteria are easy enough to wipe out most of the time, but due to the immense variation even in a single colony you will always encounter some that just will not die.

 

even if you use the standard of 'heat them up' even if you bake it at 200*C for an hour the chances of one or two organism still being viable are kind of high.

 

I've even seen stuff thats been fairly well nuked (~100kGy) spontaneously start growing stuff without any breach in packaging.

 

if you want to properly neuter anthrax than you need to change humans into something that can easily tolerate it.

[verno]

Won't it be possible for say, maybe millions of bacteriophages released in a space along with the pathogenic bacteria? Shouldn't that work? Many bacteriophage inside of 1 bacteria should be enough to destroy it.

[CharonY]

It is not a problem of number, but the ability of the virus to successfully infect a bacterium. If it is resistant throwing a whole lot at them won't do much. Also if the bacterium is confined to a location it is easier to kill it with unspecific disinfection methods.

[verno]

Is resistance particular to a certain type? I keep asking questions, hungry for knowledge

[Mr Skeptic]

Viruses require very specific security flaws in their target.

[Genecks]

Yes, security flaws.

 

You're probably better off inducing those security flaws into bacteria. There's a variety of ways to attempt that. As you attempt to bring in more security flaws, you increase the probability of destroying more of those bacteria.

 

Maybe figuring out how streptococcus conducts gene therapy on itself, putting that aspect into other bacteria, and then bring forward greater security flaws would give a larger ability to destroy the bacteria (B. anthracis in this case).

 

If the genotyping of the various bacteria were known, perhaps using various biochemicals would easily take care of the bacteria.

 

It seems like a method of exhaustion tactic might work well. But then again, for the 9/11 attacks, I believe they used steam pressurized formaldehyde (or some chemical) on government building walls. It took a while to clean the stuff up.

 

Remember: B. anthracis can develop spores. So, if B. anthracis is in a spore form, the virus is not going to easily enter (if enter at all).

Edited February 7, 2011 by Genecks

[John Cuthber]

Viruses can only attack things that are actively living. I suspect that anthrax spores would be pretty safe from any virus. The virus will attack any actively growing anthrax, then the virus will die because it has no host. Any spores that happen to "live" longer than the virus will be just fine. Virus particles are not generally very stable in the environment whereas spores are.

[CharonY]

Modifying bacteria in order to make them more susceptible to bacteriocidal agents is pretty much working backwards. And yes, getting rid of spores is even tricky with physical means (including being safe from viruses. A number of bacteriophages are pretty resilient, too (just ask a lab with a P1 infestation). Though usually not as much as spores.One could have spores with phages added to the mix though. In any case, use of viruses is impractical overall.

Edited February 8, 2011 by CharonY

[Blahah]

Is resistance particular to a certain type? I keep asking questions, hungry for knowledge

 

Yes, resistance is very specific and so is the virulence of the bacteriophage. Last summer I was working on engineering bioluminescent Salmonella enterica serovars. I transformed 5 different strains so that they glowed green, then I videod the effect of different phage types on the various S. enterica strains. I found that no phage would kill all the strains. However, if an S. enterica strain was resistant to one phage type, it was often susceptible to a different type. When one phage type affected two strains, it often killed them at different rates, or killed one strain completely but only slowed the growth of another. I experimented with cocktails of different phage types, and that was effective for a short while, but if I cultured the S. enterica continuously, giving them a small dose of the phage cocktail early in the culture, they would be highly resistant to any cocktail combination after a few days. This just goes to show how specific the relationships are, and how rapidly bacteria can evolve resistance.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Blahah

[skwiff]

just add oxygen...