Hi! So our professor, Dr. Pamela Harvey, made up a list of possible compounds that had been previously tested and had “hits”. We researched a few of these compounds, and decided on Gemcitabine Hydrochloride, and Gemcitabine based on their success in treating various cancers, and were hoping they would also have antimicrobial properties to kill bacteria. We did not have success with those, so Dr. Harvey suggested we try Decitabine because it was in the same drug class and we were curious if it could work.
Hello! So the low yellow bar of the AMP absorbance shows that there were little to no bacteria cells left in the well plates. This is because it is a known antibiotic which kills the Salmonella bacteria cells. So, in during the research to find a “new” antibiotic, we needed values to compare our tests to that are known to work. Ampicillin was our positive control.
Are the sulfanilamide drugs that you described in future directions currently in trials for antimicrobial properties or is this a class still in the early stages of research?
Great question! So the Sulfanilamide drugs are in the same class as the three antimetabolites we tested, and targets different functions of bacteria. It does currently treat yeast infections, but it is bacteriostatic (only stops bacteria from reproducing, but doesn’t kill it by itself), so further research can be done to see if it can treat something as serious as Typhoid fever.
What were the reasons you chose to use the three drugs in this experiment over other drugs? Was it because of cost, expensiveness, or something else?
Hi! So our professor, Dr. Pamela Harvey, made up a list of possible compounds that had been previously tested and had “hits”. We researched a few of these compounds, and decided on Gemcitabine Hydrochloride, and Gemcitabine based on their success in treating various cancers, and were hoping they would also have antimicrobial properties to kill bacteria. We did not have success with those, so Dr. Harvey suggested we try Decitabine because it was in the same drug class and we were curious if it could work.
What’s the significance of the low yellow bar AMP absorption?
Hello! So the low yellow bar of the AMP absorbance shows that there were little to no bacteria cells left in the well plates. This is because it is a known antibiotic which kills the Salmonella bacteria cells. So, in during the research to find a “new” antibiotic, we needed values to compare our tests to that are known to work. Ampicillin was our positive control.
Are the sulfanilamide drugs that you described in future directions currently in trials for antimicrobial properties or is this a class still in the early stages of research?
Great question! So the Sulfanilamide drugs are in the same class as the three antimetabolites we tested, and targets different functions of bacteria. It does currently treat yeast infections, but it is bacteriostatic (only stops bacteria from reproducing, but doesn’t kill it by itself), so further research can be done to see if it can treat something as serious as Typhoid fever.
How would the dyhydropholate synthesis change the effectiveness change the effectiveness if the antibiotic