Microbiology & Virology

Infectious diseases become a major problem to kill more people worldwide. The diseases caused by germs and which may infect any part of the body are called infectious diseases. They are caused by pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, virus, parasites and fungi. Infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites and can spread between individuals. STDs (or STIs) are infections that can mostly be passed on to another person during sex, be it anal, oral or vaginal sex. Most STDs affect both men and women, but in many cases the health problems they cause can be more severe for women. If a pregnant woman has an STD, it can cause serious health problems for the baby. If untreated, STIs can increase your risk of acquiring another STI such as HIV.

Viruses are tiny infectious agents that has the capability to contaminate plants, animals, insects and even microscopic organisms. An extensive variety of infections are portrayed by their size and their protection from synthetic or physical agents and pathogenic effects. Now-a days, they concentrated on two things; Viruses are dependent on host cell machinery for their replication and both bacterial and animal viruses are responsible for bringing about a recombinant DNA revolution. Because of these reasons, viruses are centered around their utilization in cell and sub-atomic science as they can answer many arising questions in biology. Viruses show solid immunological reactions with both cell and humoral immunity. Many antivirals were created to treat viral diseases by targeting viral replication stages.

Clinical Microbiology as a branch of science deals with the interrelation of macro- and microorganisms under normal and pathological conditions. It provides comprehensive information on the identification of different microorganisms and outlines recent vicissitudes in taxonomy. Microbial profiling is the relegation of microbes predicated on experiments, resulting expeditious identification. This system is developed for expeditious identification of clinically germane organisms and hence only kenned microbes can be identified. The predominant proteomic technologies that have been explored for microbial identification and characterization include matrix-availed laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS); electro spray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS); surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) mass spectrometry; one- or two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE); or the coalescence of MS, gel electrophoresis and bioinformatics. In the context of plants, two symbiotic systems have been actively studied for many years. One is arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis and the other is root nodule (RN) symbiosis. Oral bacteria have evolved mechanisms to sense their environment and eschew or modify the host. 

Microorganisms have been used as sources of antibiotics, vitamins and enzymes and for the production of fermented foods and chemicals since many decades. In the current century, microorganisms are and will play a vital role in addressing some of the problems faced by mankind.  Microbes have a significant role to play in the discovery of antibiotics, microbial vaccines, immune system modulating agents, disinfectants, anti-microbial coatings, manufacturing of biofuels and bioplastics, using biotransformation for the production of fine chemicals and many other therapeutic agents. Hence, microbes have proved beneficial for the survival of mankind.

Food Microbiology focuses on microbes having both beneficial and deleterious effects on the safety and quality of foods, thereby becoming a public concern. Food science includes microbial interactions with various foods and food chain environments including their adaptation and response mechanisms to food processing and handling stresses. Both microbial versatility and diversity can be exploited biotechnologically and industrially for the improvement of quality, safety and healthy processes of processed foods. An in-depth exploration of microbiology of fermented foods will prove commercially beneficial. Equally important is the fact that milk is an excellent source of nutrients for humans, and yet these same nutrients provide a most suitable medium for microbial growth and metabolism. Nutrigenomics focusses on identifying and understanding molecular-level interaction between nutrients and other dietary bioactives with the genome. Over the past few years, sequencing the entire genome of a single cell, a way to connect 16S genes to other functions encoded on the same strand of DNA, has become a viable option. Genomics and functional genomics of pathogenic and value adding technological microbes, molecular methods for the identification, typing and characterization of microbes and complex microbial communities, evolutionary dynamics of food-borne pathogenic microorganisms will be great use. Development of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics as food supplements and their effects on human health including effects on host gut microbiota. Advancements of predictive microbiology and its application to food and process optimization and risk assessment are emerging. 

Viral diseases/infections of the oral cavity, oral mucosa and perioral regions are generally encountered by dentists and have not received the required recognition until recently and viruses are both - ulcer genic and the tumorigenic agents of human oral cavity. The plethora of mammalian viruses in the lesions seen in periodontitis proposes that viruses play a significant role in oral diseases than earlier recognized. One of the most crucial target of oral microbiology in future would be to arbitrate the diversity, magnitude, frequency, pathogenicity, treatment and prognosis of oral viruses and the infections they cause.

Industrial microbiology is also termed as microbial biotechnology. It employs application of scientific and engineering principles to process the materials by microorganisms or plant and animal cells to create useful products and processes. The microbes utilized may be natural isolates, selected mutants from the laboratories or microbes that are genetically engineered using recombinant DNA technologies. Areas under industrial microbiology include quality assurance for the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. Industrial microbiology may also be responsible for contamination of air and plants, destroying the animal health used in testing products, and discovery of newer pathways and microbes. Industrial microbiology has proved beneficial for the discovery, development, or implementation of certain processes like antibiotics, antimicrobials, vaccines, health-care products foods and beverages food flavouring agents, preservatives, enzymes, carbohydrates. It is also involved in checking the quality of resultant products. Other uses of industrial microbiology include recovery of oil or mining, contamination control, degrade or transform pollutants and also in waste water management. This may lead to the discovery or engineering of microbes to solve contamination and recycling issues and thereby assess the environmental safety of new products.

Microbial genetics is concerned with the transmission of hereditary characters in microorganisms. It plays a unique role in developing the fields of molecular and cell biology. It has also found applications in medical, agricultural, food and pharmaceutical industries. Microbes are ideally suited for combined biochemical and genetic studies, and proved to be successful in providing information on genetic codes and gene regulations. After the discovery of DNA transfer, bacteria were of great interest because of their higher rate of reproduction and mutation than other larger organisms. Conjugation, transformation, and transduction are the important methods for mapping the genes on bacterial chromosomes. Recombinant DNA technology, selection, mutation, reproductive cloning, and use of plasmids form a part of genetic engineering tools. Metagenomics is the study of genetic material derived from environmental samples. Microbial genomics can be used to create new biofuels. Pathogenicity islands are discrete genetic loci that encode more virulent factors. 

Immunology is the study of protection from invading organisms like viruses, bacteria, protozoa, parasites and our responses to them. The commensal microbiota plays a significant role in modulating the outcome of immune responses in the host body keeping immune homeostasis in health. The barrier tissue such as the skin stops the entry of organism into our bodies. However, if the organisms penetrate through the skin, then macrophages and neutrophils kill them without the need for antibodies. Immediate challenge comes from soluble molecules that deprive the invading organism of essential nutrients and from certain molecules that are found on the surfaces of epithelia, in secretions and in the blood stream. A second line of defence is the adaptive immune system which takes days to respond to a primary invasion. Here, we see the production of antibodies and the cells involved include B-cells and T-cells. Development of autoimmune diseases is a multi-factorial process. Triggers from environmental and genetic factors as well as pathogenic pathways might explain the causes and outcomes of diseases in humans. 

Environmental microbiology is about the composition and physiology of microbial communities in the environment. The environment in this case includes soil, water, air, sediments, animals and plants. It also includes artificial environments like Bioreactors. Molecular biology has revolutionized the study of microorganisms in the environment and improved our understanding of the composition, phylogeny, and physiology of microbial communities. The present molecular technologies include DNA-based technologies and new methods for RNA and protein studies from environment samples. Currently there is a major emphasis on the application of "omics" approaches to determine the identities and functions of microbes inhabiting different environments. Microbial life is amazingly diverse and microorganisms literally cover the planet. Microorganisms can survive in some of the most extreme environments on the planet and some can survive high temperatures, often above 100°C, as found in geysers, black smokers, and oil wells. Some are found in very cold habitats and others in highly salt|saline, acidic, or alkaline water. Microbes play a crucial role in oil biodegradation, degradation of aromatic compounds and analysis of waste biotreatment. 

Immunizations have been among the best well-being approach for securing the person against viral infections, with two of universes effective antibody being against small pox and poliovirus. Viral immunizations are a blend of inactivated infections and enacted infections. Inactivated or killed viral immunizations contain infections, they don't have capacity to imitate and to achieve a reaction it contains an antigen. Activated or live vaccines contain the live type of the infection. As of now, Virus like particles sorts out another immunization idea. Such particles comprise of self-collected auxiliary proteins from the infection which can evoke an insusceptible reaction but as they lack the genetic material, they can be termed as safer vaccines.

Presently, molecular studies on host interactions, assembly and replication of insect viruses have contributed extensively to the molecular and cellular biology. There are many advantages with insect in viruses, for example; they replicate with ease in cell cultures or animals, they replicate in high numbers and it is easy to carryout genetic manipulations in insect viruses. 

Human Virology manages infections which attack human. Hepatitis A Virus is an irresistible agent and hence the disease Hepatitis A. Before it is classified as an enterovirus type 72, because of its physical and synthetic characteristics identified with entero infection, however it varies in nucleotide and amino acid groups and sizes of HAV proteins are not similar and they imitate gradually without cytopathic impact in cell culture and they are resistant to temperatures and medications which can inactivate numerous picornaviruses and stable up to pH-1, so due to these reasons they were classified into a new variety, Hepatovirus within the family of Picornaviridae. 

The human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes HIV infection and AIDS. HIV diagnosis is done by testing your blood or saliva for antibodies of the virus. HIV/AIDS clinical trials are research studies done to have a better approach, distinguish, or treat HIV/AIDS. Clinical trials are the predominant way to determine if new medical approaches to HIV/AIDS are safe and effective in people.

In recent years, diagnostic and clinical virology have been integrated into routine medical practice. It is mainly due to the epidemic outbreak of HIV and AIDS, also, the success of hematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation has greatly increased the number of patients at risk for dangerous opportunistic viral infections. Vector-borne diseases and blood-borne diseases are the major infections caused. The infections transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies, blackflies, etc are called as vector-borne diseases. Infections spread through contamination by blood and other body fluids are known as blood-borne diseases. The plant viruses majorly target the RNA-silencing system to infect plants.

Immunizations have been among the best well-being approach for securing the person against viral infections, with two of universes effective antibody being against small pox and poliovirus. Viral immunizations are a blend of inactivated infections and enacted infections. Inactivated or killed viral immunizations contain infections, they don't have capacity to imitate and to achieve a reaction it contains an antigen. Activated or live vaccines contain the live type of the infection. As of now, Virus like particles sorts out another immunization idea. Such particles comprise of self-collected auxiliary proteins from the infection which can evoke an insusceptible reaction but as they lack the genetic material, they can be termed as safer vaccines.

It is reported that the world industry for drug discovery outsourcing is in billions by 2015. The study of parasites that duplicate inside microscopic organisms by making utilization of the host biosynthetic machinery is known as bacterial virology. Bacteriophages are the infections that infect and recreate in microscopic organisms. Since the mid-1970s, microbes have kept on creating protection from anti-infection agents, for example, penicillin, and this has prompted a new interest for the utilization of bacteriophages to treat genuine contaminations.

The study of animal infections is critical, and a considerable list of these infections cause illnesses that are monetarily annihilating. Numerous infections which affect the animals are likewise imperative from a human medicinal point of view. The rise of the SARS infection in the human populace, originating from an animal source, features the significance of animals in harboring irresistible agents; avian flu infections can specifically infect people. Alpha infections are a small group, encompassed single-stranded positive-sense RNA infections. They are by and large transmitted by arthropod vectors (typically mosquitoes). Out of thirty known species, eight are vital human pathogens (e.g. Venezuelan equine encephalitis infection) while one, salmonid alpha infection, is of commercial significance to the cultivated fish industry. In view of their little size alpha infections have truly been used as model frameworks for the examination of viral pathogenesis.

Myocarditis is a disease of both grown-up and pediatric patients that it is an inflammatory issue caused by viral diseases. Hand-foot and mouth ailment, herpangina, aseptic meningitis and pleurodynia are predominant viral ailments in pediatric patients. EAC suspects that the viral business will hoist from past efficient/worldwide size of $4.2 billion to $6.9 billion this year demonstrating a compound yearly development rate (CAGR) of around 10.6%.

The epidemiology of plant virus diseases concerns the cyclical development of virus diseases within plant populations in time and space. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a positive-sense single stranded RNA virus that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. In the viral life cycle, viral entry is the emergent stage of infection, as the virus invades with the host cell and intrudes viral material into the cell. Mycoviruses are viral agents that infect fungi.  They have double-stranded RNA genomes and isometric particles. To be a true mycovirus, they should have a positive sense and single-stranded RNA genomes and must be able to be transmit infections.

Viral oncology is a subdivision of oncology, It deals about treatment of human growths/tumors with infection particles. Roughly 20% of all tumor outgrowths are a result of chronic infections. Upto 15% of human malignancies is portrayed by a viral etiology with higher rate in Developing Countries. Certainly, the irresistible idea of tumors has vital ramifications in their defensive mechanism, diagnosis, and treatment. In the 21st Century, the exploration on viral oncology field keeps on being dynamic, with new huge and unique investigations on viral oncogenesis and as a translational research from virology for the treatment of disease

Current research in virology incorporates the examination of components of HIV replication and pathogenesis. Diseases, for example, Alzheimer's illness and HIV-1-related dementia. Other research includes incessant and inactive diseases caused by viruses, for example, Epstein-Barr and Kaposi's sarcoma related herpes infection and herpes simplex and the retrovirus. Researchers are additionally considering viral host communications alongside the system of viral instigated cell transformation. Drug-drug interactions happen when a medication interacts or meddles, with another medication leading to sudden responses.