Tubercle bacilli

D-Arabinose is found in the glycoside bar-baloin and in the polysaccharides of the tubercle bacillus. 

Tuberculocidal Test. The tubercle bacillus is resistant to disinfectants because the cells are protected with a waxy coating that is not readily penetrated. The tuberculocidal test is a use dilution practical type test that employs porcelain cylinders. The bacteria are different from those in the use dilution method (Table 10), the incubation time is longer, and the details of the procedure are different. For example, in the tuberculocidal test the test is divided into two parts, a presumptive test and a confirmatory test. The former employs Mycobacterium smegmatis and the latter employs Mycobacterium bovis (BCG). For the presumptive test the incubation time is 12 days, as against 48 hours for other bacteria used in the use-dilution method. For the confirmatory test the incubation time is 60 days, with an additional 30 days in case there is no growth. As shown in Table 10, the concentrations of the phenol standard are higher than used with other bacteria. 

The three standard drugs used in the treatment of tuberculosis were streptomycin (considered above), -aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and isoniazid (isonicotinylhydrazide, INH synonym, isonicotinic acid hydrazine, INAH). The tubercle bacillus rapidly becomes resistant to streptomycin, and the role of PAS was mainly that of preventing this development of resistance. The current approach is to treat tuberculosis in two phases an initial phase where a combination of three dmgs is used to reduce the bacterial level as rapidly as possible, and a continuation phase in which a combination of... 

The lipid constituents of the acid-fast bacilli, particularly the tubercle bacillus, have been extensively studied and there is good evidence that carbohydrate-lipid complexes play an important part in the sero-... 

Varying proportions of D-mannose and of the rarely occurring D-form of arabinose are obtained76 on hydrolysis of the polysaccharide of tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) strain H-37, whereas the poly-... 

D-Arabinose H H HO HOH2C—C—C—C—CHO HO HO H glycosides of Aloe tubercle bacillus... 

The answer is a. (Hardman, pp 1105-1108.) The activity of streptomycin is bactericidal for the tubercle bacillus organism. Other aminoglycosides (e.g., gentamicin, tobramycin, neomycin, amikacin, and kanamycin) have activity against this organism but are seldom used clinically because of toxicity or development of resistance. 

Other workers have demonstrated improved lung function (including arterial oxygen level increase [355]) and increased response to bronchodilators [356] after bromhexine. Some evidence of weak activity against tubercle bacillus has appeared [357] this could complicate culture control of anti-tubercular therapy. 

The ability of the tubercle bacillus to remain dormant but viable and capable of causing disease is a major therapeutic challenge. The mycobacteria are slow-growing intracellular organisms that require the administration of a combination of drugs for extended periods to achieve effective therapy and to prevent the emergence of resistance. The risk of adverse reactions therefore must be a major consideration in drug selection. 

Humulus lupulus L. She Ma (Hop) (female flower, unripe fruit) Humulone, resin, lupulone, choline asparaginer, lupulin, isohumulone, isovaleric acid.33-450 This herb is toxic. Inhibit the growth of tubercle bacillus and arrest tuberculosis. 

Humulus scandens (Lour.) Merr. Lu Cao (aerial part) Humulone, lupulone, asparagine, choline, luteolin.33 Inhibit tubercle bacillus, antipyretic, diuretic. 

Bacillus Calmette-Guenn (BCG)- An attenuated strain of bovine tubercle bacillus is available from Glaxo or from outdated hospital supplies as a lyophilized powder. Before use, it is suspended in sterile distilled water. 

PPD of tuberculin derived from the tubercle bacillus and available from Statens Serum Institut (Copenhagen, Denmark) as a 1 mg/mL solution in PBS. Store at 4°C. 

Silicosis occurs in industries in which the air is polluted by silica dust, e g., pottery, metal grinding, sandblasting and mining in rock. The inhaled silica gives rise to the production of diffuse fibrosis in the lungs moreover it facilitates the growth of the tubercle bacillus so that tuberculosis is a possible complication. A special form of silicosis, called anthracosis (black lung), occurs in coal miners who are exposed to a mixed dust, mainly of coal, with a small proportion of silica. 

E. Kayser and H. Delaval observed that the presence of a radioactive uranium mineral increased the activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. A. W. Bosworth and co-workers observed that ammonia is produced by the human tubercle bacillus. 

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). 

Pope and Smith (31) have reported the synthesis of pyri-doxine by tubercle bacilli when grown on synthetic media. Pyridoxine has been synthesized, together with other B-complex vitamins, by H37 and Ravenel strains of the tubercle bacillus. 

An additional glycoside of myo-inositol, not so well characterized as galactinol, is manninositoseI88,192(b) from the phosphatides of the tubercle bacillus (see p. 175). 

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the competition for iron between iron-binding proteins of the animal and the siderophores of bacterial parasites. This discussion will be limited to two bacterial species—a slow-growing organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis and a fast-growing organism Escherichia coli. Both organisms produce specific siderophores which have been defined chemically and physically. Myco-bactin, the siderophore of M. tuberculosis, because of its hydrophobic nature, is associated mostly with the lipoidal cell wall of the tubercle bacillus (11) whereas enterochelin (enterobactin), the siderophore of E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium, is soluble in water and is rapidly lost by the bacterial cell into the surrounding medium (12, 13). 

The serologically inactive polysaccharide fractions were strongly acidic, and it seemed that the inactivity was in some measure related to the acidic function. These workers suggested that immunological specificity, in the case of the tubercle bacillus, was not connected with sugar acids. They also showed that the polysaccharide associated with the culture medium, as isolated by Masucci, McAlpine and Glenn, contained constituents identical with those in polysaccharides of somatic origin. 

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