Contemporary Medical Biotechnology Research for Human Health

Contemporary Medical Biotechnology Research for Human Health discusses a range of currently available solutions required to defeat the ever-increasing human health challenges. The junction between biotechnology and biomedical/health sciences has led to several improvements in patients’ treatment, diagnosis and well-being. The book discusses vital topics ranging from biofilms and UTI, mycobacterial infections, diabetes, aplastic anemia, oral cancer, and possible applications of nanoparticles. In addition, it discusses computer-aided drug design using natural products and new technologies to develop antibiotics. This is a valuable resource for biotechnology and biomedical researchers, bioinformaticians and members of health sciences interested in understanding recent technological developments.

• Bridges the gap between biotechnology and biomedical/health sciences in a holistic way to leverage multidisciplinary research
• Discusses the benefits of using potential microbes and natural products to improve health protection through biotechnological intervention
• Presents several case studies and practical applications of recent findings in the field in order to be easily applied by the readers

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Feb 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9780323918367

Book preview

Preface

The concept of biotechnological intervention in having a positive role to provide and improve the health safety is a holistic solution for the benefit and protection of human health using potential and beneficial microbes and natural remedies or products. Restoration of the flora and fauna, and controlling the emerging threats are of paramount consequence as the pollution, recalcitrant chemicals in the food chain, unhealthy lifestyle has also increased this threat to an uncontrollable extent. It is of utmost importance that we must use the findings of recent developments in biotechnology and biological sciences to reduce this burden on health sector. Focusing on these aspects, the ultimate objectives of this book are to provide current and forthcoming knowledge to beginners, researchers, students, medical scientists, bioengineers, stakeholders, and industry stakeholders, who can support the management of health industry, ecosystems, and health systems, through the use of microbes and natural resources, to provide a safe and sustainable future for the current and next generations. Components in this book would be a unique collection adopted in most studies to the benefit of analytical and diagnostic practices, and health and medical biotechnology researchers as well.

The Department of Biotechnology, University of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, India, every year organizes the International Conference on Biotechnology & Biological Sciences: BIOSPECTRUM since 2017. It is a unique platform to network and collaborate with scientists and academicians working in the country and abroad. Among several papers presented during the conference, we screened, reviewed, and selected a few papers as chapters in the current book. This book Contemporary Medical Biotechnology Research for Human Health, highlights different case studies and contemporary developments in such an important theme, as contribution from experts demonstrating different day-to-day life studies, utilizing both existing and some of the upcoming-novel evolving technologies. Initial chapters cover different aspects of oral cancer; chromosomal aberrations; mycobacteria, tuberculosis, and antimycobactericidal proteins; urinary tract infections and biofilm formation, related to pandrug resistance, as analyzed by molecular biology analysis; arsenic toxicity; studies related to oral squamous cell carcinoma, type 2 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, glutamate excitotoxicity, antibacterial effect, antioxidant and free radicals scavenging activity, and persistent infection. Other part covers applications of recent technology to study dysbiosis and other issues, using molecular cytogenetics, computer-aided drug design, mobile health monitoring, fog computing, neural network, cryopreservation, molecular docking, protein interactions, signaling pathways, tumor detection, brain MRI scans, fuzzy C-means, K-means, potential drug targets, protein–protein interaction network; and roles of different types of biomolecules in such studies, such as dopamine, cytokine IL-2, nanoparticles, lactoferrin, reverse micelles, coenzyme-Q10, Trolox, different types of genes, and more. Current book is an attempt to address such possible biotechnological applications and impending challenges in this particular field. We are hopeful that readers will find the chapters interesting and useful for their current and future research work, in the area of human health. Especially, since this book contains different case studies and experimental work as well, we assume that research students will also find this book valuable for reference purposes. The chapters in the book may be of interest to the nonscientific community as well, as it also highlights most of those research outcomes quite relevant to general public, especially related to those dealing with possible benefits for human health.

Last, but not the least, the editors are grateful to all the contributing researchers, expert academicians, and leading scientists, whose involvements, either as authors or reviewers, made this book a reality. We also express our deep sense of gratitude to our family members, whose kind understanding and unconditional support during the course of such additional scholarly activities, apart from our routine academic duties, gave us the strength to complete the task on-time. While we strived to make sure that this book is free from any misleading or erroneous information, any such mistakes are completely unintentional, and if you find any such mistakes then kindly pardon us. We are also thankful to Elsevier for giving us this opportunity, the editorial support team members, Rafael Teixeira (Senior Acquisitions Editor, Elsevier), Samuel Young (Editorial Project Manager, Elsevier), and the series editors, for their relentless support throughout the publishing process. We would also like to sincerely thank our universities for extending the facilities and encouragement for such scholarly activities.

Sanket Joshi

Susmita Mukherjee

Moupriya Nag

Chapter 1

Human granulocyte proteins constitute the major antimycobactericidal proteins and enhance the killing of mycobacteria within macrophages

Mitali Sengupta

School of Biotechnology, Campus-11, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata, India

Abstract

The pathogenic bacteria have been found to reside within the macrophages wherein they are controlled by the later. However, the recent data has shown that human granulocytes have an important contribution in regulating innate immunity during tuberculosis as a result of the different granulocyte proteins they contain within them. In this study, we have isolated and identified a few from human granulocytes and checked its efficacy against M. smegmatis and M. bovis BCG respectively. Using the protocol for gel overlay assay and the colony forming units (CFU) assay, we showed that out of the three identified proteins, that is, hemoglobin, lactoferrin, and lipocalin, lactoferrin has been found to be a potential antimycobactericidal molecule. These proteins were identified through MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis. Extracellular addition of these proteins in different doses to the mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 and human monocyte cell line THP-1 showed significant reduction in intracellular mycobacterial survival without any significant cytotoxicity on the cell lines. An ESAT-6 family member protein Rv2346c of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been cloned and expressed in a nonpathogenic host M. smegmatis which has more survival within the mouse macrophages cell line (RAW 264.7) and human monocyte macrophage (THP-1) by inducing host cell death upon infection and also upregulated production of nitric oxide (NO), reactive oxygen species (ROS), catalase, and superoxide ions, respectively. Macrophages treated with lactoferrin significantly enhanced cell viability by reducing the percentage of apoptotic cells and reduced oxidative stress damage to host cells. From this data, it can be concluded that human granulocyte proteins may play a very integral role in mediating intracellular killing of mycobacteria within macrophages thereby inducing host cell viability.

Keywords

Mycobacteria; Tuberculosis; Human granulocyte; Lactoferrin

1.1 Introduction

Tuberculosis, due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis still remains a significant public health burden across the globe [1]. It affects approximately one third of the world's population and about 1.7 million people die annually worldwide [2]. M. tuberculosis is able to establish a persistent infection in most infected individuals. M. tb can manifest discreet types of strategies for subverting host immune responses, which enables the pathogen for survival and multiplicity within macrophages. Post infection, there is a precarious balance that gets established among host as well as pathogen, and specific immune responses that is formed against the bacteria eventually influence the outcome of the disease in a significant manner [3]. The underlying problem, as a result become worsened due to the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) strains, thereby making majority of the tubercular drugs ineffective [4]. Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies, including search for new drugs are desperately needed to protect from uncontrolled spread of these multidrug-resistant strains.

The macrophages infected with M. tb can successfully phagocytose those human neutrophils which are infected with M. tb. This further enhances the mechanism of killing as the phagosomes within the macrophages which contain M. tb receive the antimicrobial content of the neutrophils [5].

Phagocytic cells have a distinct role during the host defense process of the microbial infection cycle. The neutrophils have been found to play key multifunctional roles during the onset of TB. In particular, they participate in the process of acquired immunity generation followed by the formation of granuloma which might result in killing of the M. tb. The neutrophils are basically the archetypical phagocytes which are integral parts of the comprehensive phagocyte system; the creation of a myeloid phagocytic system has been recently proposed by [6], where monocytes, macrophages, immature myeloid dendritic cells are already included. Neutrophils happen to be predominantly infected by rapidly replicating mycobacteria in those patients that suffer from tuberculosis resulting in direct antimycobacterial activity against bacteria together with induction of protective immunity by synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines [7].

Granulocytes contain a number of antibacterial substances but very few have been shown to be active against mycobacteria. However, over the past few years, a lot of researchers are actively keen to identify the different granular proteins and peptides which show potential antimycobacterial activity against mycobacterial strains [8]. Therefore, to identify more such antimycobacterial molecules; we have isolated and worked on a few protein molecules which have shown potential activity.

In the present study, we have identified various human granulocyte proteins with antimycobactericidal properties and studied the mechanism of bacterial killing. It is already proven that RAW 264.9 [9] and THP-1 cells [10] serve as excellent cell lines for characterizing the intracellular growth features of M. smegmatis and M. bovis BCG, and therefore, these two models have been chosen for the current study for evaluating the role of human granulocyte proteins toward potential in killing