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Mitigating extreme infectious disease disaster risk
Published in Vicki Bier, Risk in Extreme Environments, 2018
Another institutionally linked pathogen that occasionally causes significant disruption is bacterial meningitis.13 Bacterial meningitis has only sporadically broken out in the U.S., but because of the horrific disease symptoms, death rate, and often severe after effects, Neisseria meningitidis type C is a much-feared infection (CIDRAP 2012).
Detection of ferric ions in a gram-positive bacterial cell: Staphylococcus aureus
Published in Journal of Coordination Chemistry, 2020
Erendra Manandhar, Ashley D. G. Johnson, William M. Watson, Shelby D. Dickerson, Gyan S. Sahukhal, Mohamed O. Elasri, Frank R. Fronczek, Peter J. Cragg, Karl J. Wallace
The synthesis of chemosensors to selectively detect biologically and environmentally essential ions is an area of extensive interest [1–3]. Iron is one of the most abundant metal ions in the human body, with 3–6 g present in the average adult living in the United States [4]. It is found predominantly in the +2 and +3 oxidation states and plays significant biological roles in the cell [5] where it is present at approximately 50–100 μM (3 to 6 ppm) [3, 6]. The ferrous ion is utilized in oxygen metabolism, electron transfer, and DNA and RNA synthesis [7]. The ferric ion is less abundant but is nevertheless a critical metal ion, typically found in metallobiomolecules [8]. Also, a fraction of iron is “loosely” bound to organic anions (phosphates, citrates, carbonates, and carboxylates), polyfunctional ligands (polypeptides and siderophores), and surface components of membranes (phospholipid head groups) [9–11]. This can lead to labile iron pools (LIP's) of free iron [7]. Moreover, iron can readily undergo redox reactions with molecular oxygen forming both Fe2+ and Fe3+ in these LIPs [10, 12]. The labile iron is a source for metabolic reactions that occur within the cell and is a site for generation of highly reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals via Fenton chemistry [13]. These highly reactive radicals can interact with many biologically important compounds such as sugars, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids resulting in peroxidative tissue damage. It is also suggested the cellular toxicity caused by Fe3+ is potentially linked to conditions such as Alzheimer's [14], Huntington's [15], and Parkinson's diseases [16, 17]. Conversely, deficiency of Fe3+ leads to anemia, kidney and liver damages, diabetes, and heart disease [18, 19]. Small-molecule recognition of iron in eukaryotic cells has been explored by Kumar [20, 21], Bhalla [22, 23], Kim [24, 25], Bernhardt [5, 26], Bruckner [27], Raymond, [28–30], Hider [31], and Critchon [29, 30], but, despite the role that iron plays in prokaryotic cells, i.e. bacterial cells, surprisingly few examples exist [32, 33]. The growth of many bacteria such as Neisseria meningitidis depends on the availability of iron [34]. Iron influences cell composition, metabolism, enzyme activity, and host cell interactions, including pathogenicity. The main functions of iron in the bacteria cell are catalytic [32, 35–37]. Iron often acts as a co-factor for different proteins whereby it can influence other components in the bacterial cell [38, 39]. For example, iron deficiency in Mycobacterium smegmatis decreases DNA and RNA levels [32]. Iron-promoted biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa [40] is a significant problem for those with cystic fibrosis while the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis causes pyogenic meningitis and meningococcal septicemia in humans [34]. Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for both pneumonia and bacteremia and is the leading causes of skin and soft tissue infections such as abscesses, furuncles, and cellulitis [41].