Bacillus malariae

The infectious killer disease, tuberculosis (TB), is the leading cause of death worldwide from a single human pathogen, claiming more adult lives than diseases such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria, diarrhea, leprosy, and all other tropical diseases combined. The organism usually responsible, the tubercle bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT), was discovered by Robert Koch in 1882. However, M. bovis, which infects cattle, may also infect humans, and M. africanum is a cause of TB in West Africa. Furthermore, a number of normally nonpathogenic mycobacteria, especially M. avium, M. intracellulare, and M. scrofulaceum, cause opportunistic infectious disease in patients with AIDS. Pulmonary TB, the most common type of the disease, is usually acquired by inhalation of the bacillus from an infectious patient and causes irreversible lung destruction (Newton et al., 2000). 

Active against Malaria, tuberculosis. Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus sobrinus, S. mutans, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Vibrio cholera. Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, Toxocara canis. 

In what follows, the uses of MS for pathogen detection would be demonstrated in the examples of intact Bacillus spore species, as well as Plasmodium parasites— the causative agent of malaria. The types of characteristic biomarker molecules detected by MS for these two very different cases would be discussed as well as the factors influencing mass spectra of intact organisms. 

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