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Writing Exercise #4

Wen Gao and Hong Cheng from the Department of Gastroenterology in Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China explicate in their primary research article “The Evolution of Helicobacter pylori Antibiotics Resistance Over 10 Years in Beijing, China” (2010) that the percentage of antibiotic resistance strains of H. pylori is increasing and eradication regimes should reflect the local epidemiologic status of the bacterium. Gao and Cheng collected and cultured samples from patients over the course of 10 years from untreated and previously treated individuals and found that along with the increase in antibiotic treatment, so did antibiotic resistant H. pylori strains. The research served to identify the trends in H. pylori strains alongside common treatments in order to find proper eradication of the human pathogen. Researchers Gao and Cheng intend to reach out to other researchers in the gastroenterology or microbiology field, as well as physicians treating patients with H. pylori infections.

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Writing Exercise #3

A list of behaviors which could cause changes the gut microbial community:

Antibiotics: Today, antibiotics are not unique to specific bacteria and target essential characteristics of bacteria. This means that antibiotics are not discriminatory to the type of bacteria and the overall number and diversity of the microbes will be lower.

Age: In the article “Role of the gut microbiota in health and chronic gastrointestinal disease: understanding a hidden metabolic organ”, it describes how the gut microbial community of children are very different than that of adults. At the age of 2, the microbiome ism mostly developed and similar to adults. Furthermore, older adults also have varying microbiomes of young adults.

Diet: In “An Altered Gut Microbiome Profile in a Child Affected by Crohn ’ s Disease Normalized After Nutritional Therapy”, we see that a change in diet that includes an increase in proteins, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory fats is correlated with a regression of CD. The foods we eat pass through our gut and can either contain nutrients which promote or decrease the health of our flora.

Probiotics: Ingesting helpful bacterial strains may not contain the needed amount of bacteria to balance the gut microbiome but can help those strains to begin colonizing. This would be helpful for your gut microbial community and could reduce inflammation and other side effects which unhealthy microbiomes are associated with.

Smoking: This could cause an unbalanced flora by increasing the amount of potentially harmful bacteria and decreasing the number of beneficial.

Environment: A study described in “An Altered Gut Microbiome Profile in a Child Affected by Crohn ’ s Disease Normalized After Nutritional Therapy” mentions how elders living in long-stay care versus in a community, had less diverse and lowered amounts of microbiota. Different environments can be more or less microbe-rich, and living in the latter could cause a negative shift to the gut microbiome.

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Writing Exercise #2

If a colleague asked my opinion as a healthcare professional on which HPV strains should be covered in a new treatment, I would recommend HPVs 31 and 45. This recommendation is based off Sarid and Gao’s article Viruses and Human Cancer: From Detection to Causality. While it would be beneficial to treat all strains, the cost of creating it would become very expensive. Therefore the benefit of each should outweigh the cost.

While cancer is often thought of as non-infectious, there are known viruses to cause cancer. Virus can carry oncogenes, or cancerous genes, which are incorporated into human genes upon infection. Human Papillomavirus, also known as HPV, is one such virus. HPV strains 16, 18, 31 and 45 are considered carcinogenic and cause around 80% of cervical cancers in women. Other known strains are HPVs 33, 35, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58, and 59 but are only considered probably carcinogenic to humans. Therefore, it is more beneficial to treat strains which do cause a majority of cervical cancers, rather than those that are probable.

Today, however, there are vaccines already created for HPVs 16 and 18, therefore to be most cost beneficial in creating a treatment, the strains 31 and 45 should be prioritized. This treatment should then be given to women to further prevent the spread of HPV. With a limited spread of this virus, then hopefully the number of cervical cancers will decrease with it.

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Writing Exercise #1

Microorganisms influence many different kinds of human non-infectious diseases. In my undergraduate career, I have been introduced to the idea of the microbiome. Microbiomes are linked to obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, and liver diseases. Recently, I have read more about the connection between the micro biome and other cognitive disorders, such as sclerosis and Alzheimers. Furthermore, the most common causes of death are non-infectious; it would be absurd to believe that microorganisms have no effect.

After taking an immunology course, I learned that microorganisms can trigger the immune system to attack itself, eventually leading to an immune disease. Examples of these are lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and type I diabetes. In simple terms, the microbe can have similar properties to human cells, which can confuse the immune system. When this happens, the immune system believes the human cell is the microbe and attacks human cells.

The idea of microorganisms and non-infectious diseases being related is relatively new and we learn more about it everyday. I am excited to learn about this relationship in greater detail. Hopefully this class will provide me the skills to search and understand new articles about these findings.