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Bulky biofilms found in kids' ears
news@nature.com ^ | 11 July 2006 | Helen Pearson

Posted on 07/11/2006 9:21:52 PM PDT by neverdem

click here to read article


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Direct Detection of Bacterial Biofilms on the Middle-Ear Mucosa of Children With Chronic Otitis Media
1 posted on 07/11/2006 9:21:54 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
I did research on the biofilm growing on the inside of waterpipes. There's plenty of critters growing there. Should you be scared? No, not really.

On a related note, I showed this film in grad school about fungal infections. this kid in the film got an infection on a slip n' slide that ate part of his skull in a couple of days. He lived, but he obviously had a weakened immune system.

It's a crazy world. Someone ought to sell tickets.
2 posted on 07/11/2006 9:28:35 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: mysterio

new tagline...


3 posted on 07/11/2006 9:30:11 PM PDT by null and void (It's a crazy world. Someone ought to sell tickets.)
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To: null and void

Credit "Raising Arizona."


4 posted on 07/11/2006 9:31:59 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
Mice born from stem-cell sperm

Genetic Engineering Fuses Spider Silk and Silica

Novel nanocomposites from spider silk–silica fusion (chimeric) proteins the whole magilla in HTML.

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

5 posted on 07/11/2006 9:33:08 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: mysterio
Clostridium histolyticum can reduce a human thigh down to just bone and a veneer of skin overnight. A hot strain of Yersinia Pestis can kill you in a few hours. There's plenty of dangerous bacteria. My own lungs look like hell after surviving a round of coccidiomycosis. My grad school professor insisted that we all get a skin test for tuberculosis and coccidiomycosis. My TB test disappeared as usual, but the cocciomycosis test flared into a patch almost 5 inches across. A lung X ray revealed the classic amorphous patterns of walled off infection wrapped in calcium.
6 posted on 07/11/2006 9:47:16 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: mysterio

Somewheres I read the actual number of bacteria the average human has compared to his own cells is like a hundred to one ratio or some fantastic amount!


7 posted on 07/11/2006 10:01:33 PM PDT by djf (I'm not Islamophobic. But I am bombophobic. Same thing, I guess...)
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To: neverdem

Food grade H2O2 properly diluted, or even regular "drug store" H202 will clear up almost any ear infection. 8000mg/day (for 3 days) of vitamin C will also work.


8 posted on 07/11/2006 10:15:20 PM PDT by JSteff
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To: Myrddin

Sheesh! You are a lot better speler than me and I bet you can pronounce those really big words too. :>)


9 posted on 07/11/2006 10:23:17 PM PDT by TaMoDee
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To: JSteff

Bookmarking.
Where can I fond this?


10 posted on 07/11/2006 10:23:46 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (Roll your own cigarettes! You'll save $$$ and smoke less!(Magnetic bumper stickers-click my name)
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To: RandallFlagg

fond=find

I'm at work and the brain isn't with me.


11 posted on 07/11/2006 10:25:09 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (Roll your own cigarettes! You'll save $$$ and smoke less!(Magnetic bumper stickers-click my name)
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To: TaMoDee
Sheesh! You are a lot better speler than me and I bet you can pronounce those really big words too. :>)

You can't go to bed until you pronounce the following Welsh word properly:

llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

That's a little more trouble than my favorite bacterium from the Russian steppes: Ectothiorhodospira shaposhnikovii

12 posted on 07/11/2006 10:41:24 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: JSteff

I suffered through my early childhood with frequent ear infections culminating in tonsil and adenoid removal.

By the time I had children I had learned a lot about therapeutic nutrition, and sucessfully controlled my colds and allergies with Vitamin C among other nutrients. When my children exhibited signs of similar ear problems I started giving them weight appropriate quantities of therapeutic doses of Vitamin C. [If you want to know what those are check out reference materials in a good health food store.] For nighttime I would fix a baby bottle with 8 oz of water, 1000 miligrams of Vitamin C, 1/4 teaspoon of powdered garlic, and a heaping teaspoonful of honey. When they would get congested and wake up at night drinking part of the bottle would clear up the congestion and open the eustacian (sp) tubes to drain the middle ear and they would go back to sleep. We seldom had to take them to the doctor after instituting this regimen. Vitamin C is anti inflamatory and antihistaminic. Garlic is anti infective. Honey "makes the medicine go down."


13 posted on 07/11/2006 11:04:10 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: mysterio

A really good anti infective that gets no publicity because it is so cheap is Zephirin Chloride 750:1 dilution. I used the the same bottle for 12 years and it kills all kinds of surface infection. My baby had thrush (yeast infection in the mouth) and the doctor perscribed an expensive antibiotic that I had to swab his mouth out with 4 times a day. He absolutely hated it and fussed terribly. When I ran out I asked the Dr. if there was something else I could use and he recommended the Zepherin. This I used twice a day, they baby didn't mind it much and it cleared the thrush after 3 days. After that I used it for cuts, pimples, rashes, etc. to great effect.


14 posted on 07/11/2006 11:11:30 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: neverdem; All

Do kids still get potatoes growing in their ears?


15 posted on 07/11/2006 11:24:30 PM PDT by olde north church (Everybody's talking 'bout a two-way woman.)
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To: neverdem

In a few years time we probably know how to disrupt the quoring sensing system for the bugs that will prevent or dissolve the biofilm. This will be a big step forward as the bacteria are very difficult to get rid of then they are in a biofilm; up to 1000 times higher concentration of antibiotics are sometimes required.


16 posted on 07/12/2006 1:46:24 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: AdmSmith

here is a link http://library.albany.edu/science/newinsci_quorum_sensing.htm


17 posted on 07/12/2006 1:53:08 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: gleeaikin

Where do you get Zephirin Chloride and how do you use it?


18 posted on 07/12/2006 2:15:23 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: neverdem
This is very interesting:

Nanowires common in bacteria?
By Charles Q. Choi

Microbes may use electrically conductive nanowires to help transport electrons


[Published 11th July 2006 06:26 PM GMT]

The practice of sprouting electrically conductive nanowires from the cell for electron transfer could be common across bacteria, not just those that reduce metal, scientists reported this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). These findings, which appear to contradict a finding from an earlier study, could have broad implications for how microbes living in communities and biofilms distribute energy, affecting both ecology and human health, according to a study author.

"It's not yet certain how far-reaching these structures are, but as a strategy to transfer electrons in a community structure we could investigate whether or not [nanowires] are found in all kinds of biofilms, from marine sediments to ones in Yellowstone to biofilms of pathogens, like in cystic fibrosis or tuberculosis," coauthor Yuri Gorby at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., told The Scientist.

As bacteria generate energy in the form of ATP, they must rid themselves of electrons. In 2005, Derek Lovley and his colleagues reported metal-reducing bacteria such as Geobacter sulfurreducens produce electrically conductive nanowires that apparently can help transfer electrons beyond the cell. Lovley's team found nanowires in one other metal-reducing bacterium (Shewanella oneidensis) and one non-metal-reducing bacterium (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), but they appeared nonconductive.

There are instances when it makes sense for non-metal-reducing bacteria to produce conductive nanowires, Gordy and his team reasoned. For instance, cyanobacteria join carbon dioxide with electrons generated during photosynthesis to create organic compounds, and these bacteria might need to get rid of extra electrons when cultivated under limited carbon dioxide. Previous studies may have missed nanowires because bacteria in biofilms are surrounded by masses of matter that may have obscured the picture, Gorby said.

Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and tunneling spectroscopy, the researchers found the photosynthetic cyanobacterium Synechocystis, when grown under limited carbon dioxide, sprouted nanowires tens of microns long in bundles 50 to 150 nanometers in diameter that were highly electrically conductive.

"It's very impressive work. The microscopy demonstrates very well the existence and function of these nanowires," James Tiedje at Michigan State University, not a coauthor, told The Scientist.

The researchers also observed highly electrically conductive wires 10 to 20 nanometers across that were produced by the thermophilic fermentative bacterium Pelotomaculum thermopropionicum. The fact that two different types of bacteria generate nanowires "suggests nanowires may be broadly distributed across many groups," Gorby said.

The ridged nanowire bundles Synechocystis produced bore a striking resemblance to electrically conductive appendages observed in the metal-reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis. Although Lovley and his team said the Shewanella wires were not electrically conductive, the wires are very fragile, Gorby noted, which could have muddied measurements of their conductivity.

Lovley, however, suggested that each team might be talking about different nanowires from Shewanella. "Theirs are 30 to 50 times larger in diameter," he told The Scientist.

Gorby and his colleagues also found that Shewanella mutants lacking genes for two electron transport proteins known as cytochromes displayed poorly conductive nanowires, as did mutants lacking a functional Type II secretion pathway, which helps transport cytochromes to their proper places in the cell.

However, this mutant data does not present a convincing argument that cytochromes are involved in conductivity, Lovley noted. He said the authors should also conduct genetic studies to better identify the composition of these structures, as well as complementation studies that reintroduce wild-type variants of genes linked to nanowires into mutants lacking those genes, to see if function was restored.

Daniel Bond at the University of Minnesota collaborates with both Lovley and Gorby, but did not participate in either study. He agreed that "there are a lot of strong feelings about this paper," and some researchers deem some of the evidence "circumstantial rather than confirmatory." Still, the STM imaging is convincing, he added, and the findings make sense. "Proteins are only capable of electron transfer over only short distances, and to get a bulky cell and bulky protein within nanometers or angstroms of a surface is hard, but to make a flexible appendage that can reach out solves a lot of problems," he said.

Charles Q. Choi
cchoi@the-scientist.com
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/daily/23924/
19 posted on 07/12/2006 3:14:58 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: neverdem

Interesting--having suffered from similar ear infections in childhood, I can relate. Also the comment about chronic prostate infection (been fighting one for two years now--but FINALLY seem to be making headway against it--thanks to the internet).


20 posted on 07/12/2006 5:10:23 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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