Diagnostic and typing methods Flashcards
What are the main bacteria associated with periodontal disease?
- Porphyromonas gingivalis
- Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans
- Prevotella intermedia
- Bacteroides forsythus
What are the main bacteria associated with dental caries?
- Streptococcus mutans
What are the main bacteria associated with root canal infections?
- Porphyromonas endodontalis
- Fusobacterium nucleatum
What are the two bacterial detection methods?
- Microbiological culture
- Molecular biological
What is the microbiological culture method?
- Vortex mix sample for 30 seconds to get homogenous suspension of bacteria
- Serial dilute samples in FAB (fastidious anaerobe broth) to 10-^6
- Spiral plate to agar media using either;
a - Fastidious anaerobe agar (FAA) + 7.5% defibrinated horse blood
b - same as a but supplemented with vancomycin for gram-negative anaerobes - Incubate anaerobically for 10 days
- Obtain total bacterial counts
- Can then sub culture specific bacteria on separate agar medium
What are the two molecular biological methods?
- Use DNA probes
- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Why might we want to use vancomycin supplement when looking for oral disease?
- Vancomycin is a selective agent for gram-negative anaerobes
- Many oral disease are caused by gram- negative anaerobes so look for these spdecifically
Why must we conduct serial dilutions in microbiological culture methods?
- If not then would be so many bacteria that would not be able to discern individual colonies
What colour do genera porphyromonas and prevotella bacteria appear on culture medium?
- Appear black pigmented
- Associated with periodontal disease
What are the 3 ways we can biochemically identify the isolated bacteria?
- Anaerobes noted by their sensitivity to metronidazole disc (5ug/disc)
- Gram stain
- Rapid API 32 A: compare enzymatic activities , sugar fermentation of those bacteria to those held on central database
What is the outcome of gram staining?
Gram-positive bacteria = violet colour due to thick peptidoglycan layer in cell wall and retains the gram stain
Gram-negative bacteria = won’t stain as only thin peptidoglycan layer in cell wall
What does it mean if we see a zone of clearing in agar due to metronidazole disc?
- Growing a gram-negative anaerobe
What are the advantages of microbiological culture methods?
- Yields bacterial isolates
- Can use these for future testing and to study e.g. for antibiotic sensitivities
What are the disadvantages to microbiological culture methods?
- Requires viable cells (most die off and aren’t detected)
- Insensitive (only show if 10^5-10^6 cells)
- Only small numbers of samples analysed at once
- Inconclusive results
- Labour-intensive
- Expensive process
What are DNA probes?
- Segments of DNA that have been labelled with chemoluminescent, fluorescent or radioactive agents
What are some types of DNA probes?
- Whole genomic (entire genome)
- Cloned gene
- Oligonucleotide (20-50 bases)
How sensitive are DNA probes compared to culture?
- 10^3 cells required to detect species so more sensitive
How is the DNA probe prepared?
- Probe is DNA double stranded molecule
- Need to pull apart so label can be attached
- Heat is used to denature the DNA and expose bases on both strands
- One strand then labelled with either chemiluminescent, radioactive or fluorescent label