Tuberculosis, Cholera, Anthrax: Dreadful Culprits.

Dreadful culprits from the minuscule world, indeed, but … what about poverty, war, and terrorism in the macroscopic nowadays world?

Acid-Fast Positive and Acid-Fast Negative Mycobacterium tuberculosis: The Koch Paradox.

Acid-fast (AF) staining, also known as Ziehl-Neelsen stain microscopic detection, developed over a century ago, is even today the most widely used diagnostic method for tuberculosis. Herein we present a short historical review of the evolution of AF staining methods and discuss Koch's paradox, in which non-AF tubercle bacilli can be detected in tuberculosis patients or in experimentally infected animals. The conversion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from an actively growing, AF-positive form to a nonreplicating, AF-negative form during the course of infection is now well documented. The mechanisms of loss of acid-fastness are not fully understood but involve important metabolic processes, such as the accumulation of triacylglycerol-containing intracellular inclusions and changes in the composition and spatial architecture of the cell wall. Although the precise component(s) responsible for the AF staining method remains largely unknown, analysis of a series of genetically defined M. tuberculosis mutants, which are attenuated in mice, pointed to the primary role of mycolic acids and other cell wall-associated (glyco)lipids as molecular markers responsible for the AF property of mycobacteria. Further studies are now required to better describe the cell wall reorganization that occurs during dormancy and to develop new staining procedures that are not affected by such cell wall alterations and that are capable of detecting AF-negative cells.

Current and past strategies for bacterial culture in clinical microbiology.

A pure bacterial culture remains essential for the study of its virulence, its antibiotic susceptibility, and its genome sequence in order to facilitate the understanding and treatment of caused diseases. The first culture conditions empirically varied incubation time, nutrients, atmosphere, and temperature; culture was then gradually abandoned in favor of molecular methods. The rebirth of culture in clinical microbiology was prompted by microbiologists specializing in intracellular bacteria. The shell vial procedure allowed the culture of new species of Rickettsia. The design of axenic media for growing fastidious bacteria such as Tropheryma whipplei and Coxiella burnetii and the ability of amoebal coculture to discover new bacteria constituted major advances. Strong efforts associating optimized culture media, detection methods, and a microaerophilic atmosphere allowed a dramatic decrease of the time of Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture. The use of a new versatile medium allowed an extension of the repertoire of archaea. Finally, to optimize the culture of anaerobes in routine bacteriology laboratories, the addition of antioxidants in culture media under an aerobic atmosphere allowed the growth of strictly anaerobic species. Nevertheless, among usual bacterial pathogens, the development of axenic media for the culture of Treponema pallidum or Mycobacterium leprae remains an important challenge that the patience and innovations of cultivators will enable them to overcome.

La lucha por la supervivencia de la embriología en una institución privada en la España del siglo XX: las crisis del Institut Biológic de Sarriá / The struggle for survival of embrryology in a private institution in the 20th century Spain: the crisis of the Institut Biológic de Sarriá

Durante el primer tercio del siglo XX, el jesuita Jaime Pujiula Dilmé (1869-1958) dominó con una autoridad casi clásica el cultivo de la embriología en nuestro país. El gran éxito de su proyecto personal, el Institut Biològic de Sarrià, sufrió un primer revés durante la II República con la llegada del gobierno de Azaña al poder. La Compañía de Jesús fue disuelta y sus bienes confiscados. El religioso, no obstante, fue capaz de solventar esta crisis mediante un acuerdo con la Societat Medicofarmacèutica dels Sants Cosme i Damiá, en cuyas dependencias volvió a montar su instituto. Más difícil resultó sobrevivir a la crisis vivida durante la Dictadura Franquista. La edad del Padre y su fuerte personalidad, autoritaria y personalista, dificultó la creación de una escuela a su alrededor. El medro de uno de sus colaboradores, el Padre Joan Puiggrós Sala (1899-¿?), significó la desaparición progresiva de la embriología en el centro y la ocupación del nicho que ésta iba dejando por la bacteriología aplicada, mucho más rentable económicamente en aquellos tiempos de penurias (AU)

During the first third of the twentieth century, the catalan jesuit Jaime Pujiula Dilmé (1869-1958) dominated with an almost classical authority the cultivation of embryology in Spain. The great success of his personal project, the "Institut Biològic de Sarrià", suffered a first setback in the II Republic with the arrival of Azaña's government to power. The Society of Jesus was dissolved, and their property confiscated. Pujiula, however, was able to overcome this crisis with an agreement with the Societat Medicofarmacèutica dels Sants Cosme i Damiá, in whose offices he remounted his institute. More difficult was to survive the crisis experienced during the Francoist dictatorship. The age of the director and his tough personality, authoritarian and personalistic, hindered the creation of a school around him. The thrive of one of his aides, Father Joan Puiggrós Sala (1899-¿?), meant the phasing of embryology in the center and the occupation of it niche by his specialty, applied bacteriology, more economically profitable in those troubled times (AU)

From Koch's postulates to biofilm theory. The lesson of Bill Costerton.

The clinical diagnoses of implant infections pose insurmountable difficulties for cultural methods because of their frequent failure when bacteria are growing in biofilms. In 1978 Bill Costerton warned that chronic infections in patients with indwelling medical devices were caused by bacteria growing in well-developed glycocalyx-enclosed biofilms and that bacteria within biofilms resist antibiotic therapies and immune host defenses. Costerton's "biofilm theory" opened two lines of scientific endeavor: the study of the biochemistry and genetics of biofilm formation and function; and, on the other side, the search for new methods for medical diagnosis and treatment of biofilm-centered implant infections. This Editorial and the entire 2012 issue "Focus on Implant Infections" are dedicated to the memory of Bill Costerton, recognized worldwide as the Father of Biofilms for his innovation and body of work on infections caused by sessile bacteria. Bill Costerton was a great scientist, heedful both to the biological aspects of biofilms and to the medical challenges of new diagnostic methods and modern therapeutic approaches to implant infections. But, most of all, he was a charming Maestro for the large number of colleagues and students whose enthusiasm for the science he was able to nourish. Bill passed away on May 12th, 2012 and the entire science community mourns the death of a friend and a leader.

Koch's postulates, carnivorous cows, and tuberculosis today.

With Koch's announcement in 1882 of his work with the tubercle bacillus, his famous postulates launched the rational world of infectious disease and an abrupt social change--strict patient isolation. The postulates, so successful at their inception, soon began to show some problems, particularly with cholera, which clearly violated some of Koch's requirements. Subsequent studies of other diseases and the discovery of entirely new ones have so altered and expanded the original postulates that they now are little but a precious touch of history. The present additions and replacements of the original concepts are skillful changes that several authors have devised to introduce new order into understanding complex viral and prion diseases. In 1988, this knowledge, with the totally rational response of the British population and its cattle industry, was critical in promptly blocking the threatened epidemic of human prion disease. In contrast, the recent upsurge of tuberculosis (TB) in the worldwide AIDS epidemic in developing countries, and the sudden increase in metabolic syndrome in wealthy ones, suggests the need for focused sociobiologic research seeking ways to affect the damaging lifestyle behavior of many less educated populations in both settings. The world awaits an equivalent of Koch's Postulates in sociobiology to explain and possibly avert large self-destructive behaviors.

[A letter of Dr. Matuki Miyazaki to Prof. Masao Ota in 1938].

A letter of Matuki Miyazaki, the director of Kyushu Sanatorium to Masao Ota was found in the materials of Masao Ota stored at the library of University of Tokyo. Miyazaki, who was president of 12th annual meeting of Japanese Leprosy Association in Kumamoto in 1938, thanked Ota for the acceptance of a special lecture. Ota lectured on the title of inoculation of leprosy bacteria to animals.

Clinical microbiology during the Vietnam War.

During the period of 1965-1968, over two dozen Army microbiologists were deployed to various locations in Southeast Asia in support of the Vietnam War. Their role was to serve both a clinical laboratory mission/function at the mobile Army surgical hospital and mobile laboratory level as well as to perform research roles in all of the facilities. They were essential to the formulation of medical intelligence as well as to the practice of operational medicine in the deployed environment. The results of their laboratory investigations provided commanders and military physicians with critical medical information for patient care, outbreak investigation, and forensic analysis. As with many soldiers in support of the infantry and armor combat forces, most of the work occurs behind the scenes and their contributions are often left out of the historical literature. This article presents a brief overview of microbiology performed by Army microbiologists during the Vietnam War.

El Laboratorio de Bacteriología y Serología de la Residencia de Estudiantes de Madrid / The Bacteriology and Serology Laboratory at the Student's Residence in Madrid

Después de que el genial químico francés Louis Pasteurestableciese la relación causa efecto entre la levadura enológicay el vino, y demostrase que ciertas enfermedadesinfecciosas eran producidas por microbios, la microbiologíase abrió camino entre la profesión médica en relación con laanatomía patológica y la histología. Se resume la puesta enmarcha del Laboratorio de Bacteriología de la Residenciade Estudiantes de Madrid, con una semblanza de quien fuerasu director fundador, el médico Paulino Suárez, y dequienes fueron sus principales colaboradores en el desarrollode la institución, la mayor parte de ellos también médicos.La puesta en marcha de este organismo supone unacontribución al desarrollo de la microbiología por parte dela Junta de ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas(AU)

Pasteur’s work demonstrating the fermentation of wineby yeasts and the causative effect of microbes in some infectiousdiseases, led to the establishment of microbiology as adiscipline separate from pathology and histology. The settingup of the bacteriology laboratory at the Student’s Residencein Madrid is described, together with brief biographiesof the founding director, Paulino Suárez, and of thepeople principally responsible for the development of theinstitution, most of whom were physicians. The creation ofthis laboratory by the Junta de ampliación de Estudios eInvestigaciones Científicas (Board for the Advancement ofScientific Research) contributed to the progress of microbiologyin Spain(AU)

[Altruistic public servant or heroic genius? The propagated image of provincial and academic directors of bacteriological laboratories in Belgium (ca. 1900-1940)]. / Altruistisch ambtenaar of heroïsch genie? Het gepropageerde beeld van provinciale en academische directeurs van bacteriologische laboratoria in België (ca. 1900-1940).

At the end of the nineteenth century provincial bacteriological institutes were established in Belgium--in Liège, Mons, Namur and Brussels--in order to combat epidemics, to promote preventive medicine and to pursue the successful research of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. Similar laboratories existed at the universities of Ghent, Louvain and Brussels. The image building played an important role for both kinds of institutes, as bacteriology in pioneering phase had to be publicly confirmed as a new, valuable discipline. However, the directors of provincial and academic institutes--with the same academic training though--were awarded with different qualities at their jubilees, fitting with the purposes and the self-image of their respective institutions, either provincial authorities or universities. The image of academic directors was guided by academic decorum: Emile van Ermengem, Edmond Destrée and Joseph Denys were represented as savants, solely devoted to pure science and paternally educating young researchers, notwithstanding the fact that their laboratories had humanitarian merits as well. On the other hand, the discourse on the first provincial directors--Ernest Malvoz, Martin Herman, Achille Haibe--emphasized their altruistic commitment and their solid work for the provincial government. Jules Bordet, a internationally rewarded scientist, professor and provincial director of the Pasteur Institute in Brussels, was celebrated with both sorts of discourses.