Microbiology Lecture #12 notes Ch12 p.300-329

Parasitology = Tropical Medicine "...immensely important in tropical countries.""...social and economic impact is incalculable". Why not emphasized? "...moderately important in temperate countries such as the United States."Kenneth Warren: "Sargasso Sea of funding for cancer and cardiovascular..." When U.S. government spending = $185/ worldwide cancer case, worldwide 0.5 penny/tropical disease victim. Warren died from cancer...

Practical classification vs. molecular taxonomy. Dr Mellon, "Do I really need to learn this new stuff?" Fungi: Heterotrophic, nonphototrophic, absorptive

Table 12.1 = excellent

Higher fungi hyphae form mycelium. Septa incompletely divide cells. Most dangerous outdoor sport: Mushroom hunting

Lower fungi; all coenocytic if mycelia present.

Yeasts: "budding". Dimorphism (Gerald Fink), and problems for clinicians.

Chitin and cellulose in cell walls. Extremely versatile, ubiquitous organisms.

Agriculture, "unending race between fungus and breeder; monocultures and coselected markers"

Hypovirulent strains in Dutch Elm Disease (evolution series: coexist with pathogens?)

Toxins, hallucinogens, carcinogens, etc. Inadequately researched fungal products (hams, peanuts)

Penicillin, cephalosporin = fungal antibiotics

Algae seldom cause diseases. Algin (from kelp) and carrageenan (Irish moss) in many foods.

Diatomaceous earth (diatom bodies). Petri-dish like Si-containing cell wall.

Lichens (phototroph + fungus). Mycorrhizae and acid rain (nephrotoxicity of aluminum. Assay for fish stress: P450 more sensitive than death!)

Protozoans: trypanosome (VSG in this flagellate), amoebic dysentery (Amoeboid), malaria and toxoplasmosis (caused by sporozoans) balantidiasis (B. coli, a ciliate, only human pathogen)

Slime molds: on humid bark as colorful spores. Dictyostelium discoideum differentiation model

Helminths:

Flatworms: tapeworms and flukes

Roundworms (nematodes): Trichinosis, whipworms, hookworms.

Vectors, reservoirs, "natural reservoirs". Control vectors, intermediate host (humans?)

Chelicerates (ticks and mites) and insects (mosquitoes, flies, lice, fleas, and bugs)

Direct involvement: scabies plus hair, skin, and body lice

Onchocerciasis and Monsanto initiative. Don't swim in tropical freshwater! Additional information on global health care access and other socioeconomic outrages:

http://www.healthwrights.org/articles/healthequity.htm

http://www.highfiber.com/~galenvtp/vtlafltx.htm

Aflatoxins and Carcinogenesis Through Alkylation of Vitaletheine Modulators?

The following analyses provide a cohesive theory for explaining the carcinogenic potential of a variety of microbial and chemical toxins. The decrease in life expectancy for people residing in the US circa de 1993 indicates that there may be a resurgence of these problems brought on by an industrialization of our society and our food supply, including the warehousing of foodstuffs for strategic reserves and price controls. A return to a more "Victory Garden" mentality and the consumption of more raw foodstuffs may do more for our general health than medicines currently being developed. From this discussion, it appears that if one is saturated with any combinations of industrial, myco- and/or afla- toxins that destroy the vitaletheine modulators, then the potential for positive intervention with these promising new immunostimulants is severely compromised. Because of this, control of our environment and proper nutrition (prophylaxis) should receive as much emphasis for maintaining good health as is placed upon medical care.

Aflatoxin in Liver Cancer

Although there are individual researchers who are not convinced that aflatoxin is a carcinogen in man, the recent realization of just how important the vitaletheine modulators are to the immune system's ability to fight off cancer indicates otherwise. It is true that infection with hepatitis B virus seems to have a stronger correlation with the incidence of liver cancer than does exposure to aflatoxins in our foodstuffs. However, suppression of vitaletheine modulator-mediated immune responses by aflatoxin consumed in contaminated food by the general population may have a profound effect upon the epidemiology of hepatitis B viral infections, as well as upon risks for other types of infectious disease such as hantavirus, ebola, tuberculosis, cancer, AIDS, etc.. In this regard it is probably critical to the general health of the public that aflatoxins, known to be carcinogenic in laboratory animals, be minimized in our diets, especially when the biosynthesis of the vitaletheine modulators are otherwise compromised by dietary deficiencies and by exposure to other environmental toxins and carcinogens.

Probable Reactions of Carcinogenic Aflatoxins with the Vitaletheine Modulators

Aflatoxins can undergo many of the same reactions with sulfenic acids characteristic of reactions with dimedone or vitamin C. Adjacent keto- groups make any hydrogen on the intervening carbon acidic, favoring tautomerization of this structure to an enol. Like the enol tautomer of dimedone, these probably react with sulfenic acids to alkylate the sulfur, thereby generating a sulfide-linked adduct.