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Ecology
Published in Paul Pumpens, Single-Stranded RNA Phages, 2020
Recently, the phage MS2 was implemented as a surrogate to establish proficiency using a biosafety level 3 procedure for drinking water control (Mapp et al. 2016). By this study, the corresponding quality control criteria were elaborated for the phage MS2, a biosafety level 2 agent, to minimize safety hazards associated with biosafety 3 agents and to use the criteria to evaluate analytical proficiency during a demonstration exercise. The USEPA method 1602 was used recently by the enumeration of the FRNA phages for the estimation of the effect of rainfall on the microbial water quality of a tropical urban catchment in Singapore (Fang H et al. 2018).
Synthetic Biology
Published in Tina Stevens, Stuart Newman, Biotech Juggernaut, 2019
Laboratories receive biosafety level (BL) rankings according to the risk of harm they represent. They are ranked 1 to 4, the higher the level of danger, the higher the number. Usually, BL1 labs conduct research on non-human infectious agents. Labs with biological agents that might cause “moderate harm” to humans receive a BL2 ranking. Labs working with biological agents that could kill people but for which there is an antidote (e.g., anthrax) are BL3 labs. When there is no known antidote for a biological agent that could kill people, the lab is ranked B4. Would neighborhoods in these densely peopled cities know whether and what pathogens are being used? What did “moderate harm” mean? Moreover, the interconnections between academic and corporate parties presented complex regulatory considerations. How would the regulatory patchwork of different agencies apply when academic and private interests can operate under varying restrictions in terms of safety, liability, and oversight? In the event of lab worker accidents, public safety hazard, or environmental disaster, what remedies would apply? (Gruber et al., 2011).
A Laboratory Incident Linked to Exposure to Botulinum Toxin
Published in Meera Chand, John Holton, Case Studies in Infection Control, 2018
There are three main types of biological safety cabinets. A Class 1 biological safety cabinet protects the operator but does not protect the work from extraneous contamination. A Class 2 biological safety cabinet not only protects the operator but removes contaminated air from the cabinet by a HEPA-filtered laminar flow of air and therefore also protects the culture from contamination. In a Class 3 biological safety cabinet, there is a physical barrier between the operator and the specimen and work is conducted through glove ports. The inlet and outlet air are both HEPA filtered. A Class 3 safety cabinet is the only one suitable for work with biosafety level 4 pathogens.
A systematic analysis of and recommendations for public health events involving brucellosis from 2006 to 2019 in China
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2022
Zhiguo Liu, Miao Wang, Yaxin Tian, Zhongqiu Li, Liping Gao, Zhenjun Li
Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases globally [1]. More than 500,000 new human cases of brucellosis are reported annually, and millions of livestock are either infected or at risk [2]. It is a significant public health problem and causes serious harm to the livestock industry’s development and human health [3]. At present, at least 12 Brucella species have been identified in the genus Brucella [4]. Brucella melitensis is a pathogen of goats and sheep and is considered to be the most virulent species for humans [5]. Fever, fatigue, sweating, and muscle and joint pain are the main manifestations in the acute stage of human brucellosis [6]. However, chronic disease can affect various organs, leading to arthritis, orchitis, hepatitis, encephalomyelitis, and endocarditis [7]. Brucella spp. are highly infectious because the infectious dose by an aerosol is only 10–100 organisms [8], and it is the most important laboratory-acquired bacterial infection [9]. It is recommended that the organism is handled according to biosafety level 3 (BSL3) precautions [10]. These guidelines can be challenging to follow, particularly in regions with a low incidence of brucellosis.
Drug discovery through the isolation of natural products from Burkholderia
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2021
Adam Foxfire, Andrew Riley Buhrow, Ravi S. Orugunty, Leif Smith
The complications that arise with discovering new natural drug products are multi-faceted and are present at every stage of development. These efforts all stem from the identification of a producing organism of interest. Bacterial isolates from the genus Burkholderia provide a unique opportunity for drug discovery efforts. Burkholderia are agreeable to production and isolation efforts needed for drug discovery and development. Burkholderia are a multi-chromosomal genus with large genomes. The diversity of antimicrobial products produced is not yet fully understood and provides an excellent opportunity for drug discovery efforts. Safety considerations will need to be followed for these efforts given that many of the species are considered biosafety level 2 pathogens. Additionally, organisms that are not classified as biosafety level 2 are still potential sources of antibiotic resistance given that the genus generally contains multidrug-resistant pumps and other antibacterial resistance genes. Despite these reasons against their use for drug discovery, the dwindling supply of new antibiotics in the pipeline for treating serious infectious diseases will require a deep look into unconventional sources for new antibiotics.
Rapid lateral flow tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies
Published in Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 2021
Jianfu J. Wang, Nan Zhang, Sarah A. Richardson, Jin V. Wu
The most classic method is ‘plaque reduction neutralization test’ which is considered gold standard for neutralizing antibody measurement [13,14]. This test was developed from Viral Plaque Assay [15], an assay for quantitation of infectious viral particles. The assay result is the number of plaque-forming units (pfu) in a virus sample, and a pfu or a viral plaque is an infected area including multiple lysed cells in a monolayer of host cells covered with a semi-solid medium in petri dishes or multi-well plates and can be examined with an optical microscope. The viral plaques usually take 3–14 days to form and are generally counted manually. Engineered SARS-CoV-2 virus has been used to avoid manual counting and to improve assay throughput[16]. The concentration of a serum sample to reduce the number of plaques by 50% is used to determine the neutralizing capability of a serum or plasma and denoted as the PRNT50 value which is equivalent to the common in use 50% of Inhibition Concentration or IC5013. Clearly, this assay is quite cumbersome and labor-intensive and requires Biosafety Level 3 working condition. The most troublesome issue is that the live and infectious SARS-CoV–2 virus has to be included in the test to measure neutralizing antibodies against it[17].