Lecture #3: History II

Question 1

Treatment of Microbial Diseases

Answer 1

Chemicals to treat outside the body. Topical treatments.

Chemicals to target microbes in the body. Antibiotics.

Chemicals/cells/substances to induce an immune response. Vaccines.

Question 2

Paul Ehrlich

Answer 2

1909 Paul Ehrlich used a chemical (arsenic based) to cure Syphilis. First time a chemical had been used to kill a disease-causing microbe. Syphilis led to many deaths at the time. Father of Chemotherapy.

Question 3

Variolation & Protection

Answer 3

Procedure used by common folk. Smallpox was such a dreaded killer that people would make an incision in a healthy person, collect pus from a diseased one, and introduce the pus. If the person recovered from the disease, he or she had immunity. If not, he or she died.

Question 4

Milkmaids & Cowpox

Answer 4

Cows developed a similar disease, lesions on udders. Milkmaids developed lesions on their hands, and did not get smallpox.

Jenner made the connection. Milder version of same basic disease.

Question 5

Soil Microbes

Answer 5

Antibiotics come from organisms in the soil. They are produced naturally, and secreted to prevent the growth of other microbes to claim space.

Typically produced by the fungus-like bacteria; Actinomycetes. High G + C bacteria. Kill or arrest the growth of bacterial competitors. Competition for space.

Question 6

AB’s Target Specific Processes of Living Cells

Answer 6

They have no effect on viruses.

So, to target viruses, you direct drugs against key processes (affect host as well, but to a lesser degree) or hone in on some specific process key to viral replication.

Question 7

Microbes Have Profoundly Influenced Human Evolution & Human History

Answer 7

Before the advent of antibiotics and vaccines, there were massive deaths due to bacterial diseases across Europe. The Black Death, TB, and others to a lesser extent.

Quick look at the Bubonic Plague (killed one in four across Europe during the Middle Ages) and Tuberculosis. Smallpox was a menace killing and maiming persons from the reign of Ramses on…

Question 8

Black Plague/Bubonic Plague

Answer 8

darkened skin, subcutaneous hemorrhages, enlarged lymph nodes (buboes). Rapid, painful death. Delivered by fleas on rats. Bacterium is the cause.

Question 9

Tuberculosis

Answer 9

Respiratory disease, bacteria form walled-off tubercles in lungs. Fever, fatigue and a cough that may be bloody. Killer.

Question 10

Golden Age of Microbiology

Answer 10

from about 1857 to 1914. Major advances in techniques and treatments. Period of 60 years in which the face of microbiology changed for the good. Analyze figure.

Question 11

Pre and Post Antibiotic Eras. Now, Judicious Use?

Answer 11

Custom Medication including Genetic Retooling. Reprogram a pathogen, insert a new capability, deliver genes to cells to correct function.

Holistic You. Rather than killing pathogens, work to balance your immune system, native biota.

Question 12

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Answer 12

Problems that led to massive deaths due to bacterial diseases (Black Plague) and viral diseases (Smallpox) are the same problems that plague us today in a different form.

• Civilization brought increased person to person contact. Rapid spread of contagion, especially in close quarters. Then villages, markets. Today, school, malls, movie theaters, airplanes — contact and recirculated air.
• Sanitation issues with lack of disinfection, open sewers, piling up of rubbish and food waste. Today, there is oversanitation. Isolate ourselves from the outside world. Smaller families. Clean perhaps too much. Overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobials.