Infectious disease agents analysis

Some idea of the relative importance of antibiotic therapy as a disease control measure in populations can be gained from an analysis of the patterns of human infectious disease mortality. During the last century deaths to infectious diseases showed a dramatic decline in developed countries. This decline is popularly believed to have been a result of developments in scientific medicine and, in particular, of the application of antibiotics. This belief is not, however, supported by the detailed analysis of mortality data for England and Wales reported by McKeown (1976). He observed that deaths to both viral and bacterial diseases decreased by approximately 90% in the period before any chemotherapeutic agents became available or any vaccine use (with the exception of that designed to control smallpox), was widespread. He concluded, immunization and treatment contributed little to the reduction of deaths from infectious diseases before 1935 and over the whole period since the cause of death was first registered (1835) they were much less important than other influences . These analyses demonstrate that, even in densely populated areas and contrary to popular mythology, a dramatic decline in deaths to infectious diseases can and did occur without reliance on chemotherapy. 

Several potential etiologies were investigated, including infectious agents, pet-borne vectors, contaminated food, organophosphate pesticide exposure, and vinyl chloride contamination from food containers, before a link was made between the new disease and the consumption of adulterated cooking oil. Chemical analysis of the case-associated oil identified brassicasterol, a marker for rapeseed oil, trace amounts of aniline, oleyl anilide, and other fatty acid anilides and contaminants (Aldridge, 1992 Posada de la Paz et al., 1996 Ruiz-Mendez et al., 2001). The toxin or toxins appear to be stable in oil, since consumption of toxic oil one year after the main epidemic led to development of the disease. 

Enzyme-catalyzed reactions are prone to inhibition by molecules that interfere with the formation of product. As we remarked in the Prolog, many drugs for the treatment of disease inhibit enzymes of infectious agents, such as bacteria and viruses. Here we focus on the kinetic analysis of enzyme inhibition, and in... 

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