diagnostic and typing methods Flashcards
what bacteria are associated with periodontal disease
- Porphyromonas gingivalis
- Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans
- Prevotella intermedia
- Bacteroides forsythus
what bacteria are associated with dental caries
- streptococco mutans
what bacteria are associated with root canal infections
- Porphyromonas endodontalis
* Fusobacterium nucleatum
what are bacterial detection methods
- microbiological culture
- molecular biological
what is microbiological culture
- This is the traditional way to identify bacteria within clinical specimens
- Culture on suitable agar medium
- Isolate bacteria
- Identify by characterisation of enzyme activities, sugar fermentation tests
what is molecular biological
- DNA probes
* Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
what is the microbiological culture methods
- Vortex mix sample for 30 seconds
- Serial dilutions (to 10-6) in FAB
- Spiral plate to agar media:
- a) Fastidious Anaerobe Agar (FAA) + 7.5% v/v defibrinated horse blood
- b) As a) but supplemented with vancomycin
- (selective agent for Gram-negative anaerobes)
- Incubate anaerobically for 10 days
- Obtain total bacterial counts
what is biochemical identification
- Anaerobes noted by their sensitivity to metronidazole disc (5μg/disc)
- Gram stain
- Rapid API 32 A: enzymatic activities, sugar fermentation
how can you tell the difference between gram positive and negative
-We can do Gram staining, this will stain Gram-positive bacteria a violet colour because they have a very thick peptidoglycan layer in their cell wall, they will retain the Gram stain; whereas Gram-negative bacteria only have a very thin peptidoglycan layer in their bacterial cell wall, they will not retain the Gram stain and will not stain
what are the advantages of culture methods
- yields bacterial isolates for future testing and study
- antibiotic sensitivities
what are the disadvantages of culture methods
- requires viable cells
- insensitive = won’t detect bacteria unless present within a clinical specimen at levels between 10^5 or 10^6
- only small number of samples analysed at once
- inconclusive results
- labour-intensive
what are DNA probes
• Segments of DNA that have been labelled with chemoluminescent, fluorescent or radioactive agents
what are types of DNA probes
- Whole genomic – entire genome
- Cloned gene
- Oligonucleotide – 20-50 bases
how do DNA probes work
- prepare probe and sample
- heat each to denature it and pull strands apart to expose bases
- label one strand in the probe with label (chemiluminescent, radioactive or fluorescent)
- mix probe with sample in process called hybridisation
- probe binds to complementary sequence of DNA in sample
- remove any non-binding DNA and we then have the labelled DNA probe identified within the sample
when were genomic probes used
- in the 80’s when we didn’t have any genetic information on different bacterial species
how large is the genome of bacterial species
- around 4 million bases
what is the major pbolemw with whole genomic probe
- extremely non-specific
- lots of cross-reactivity between whole genomic probes and DNA from other bacterial species
- fairly unreliable
how do cloned gene probes work
- these cloned gene probes would be prepared targeting a particular gene that might be unique to that particular bacterial species that you wish to identify within the clinical specimen
- So the gene of interest to be used as a probe would be cloned into E. coli, the cloned fragment isolated, purified and LABEL attached.
- Now cloned gene probes are much more specific than whole genomic probes = deal with a single gene rather than thousands