Why did you choose EGC Green tea extract for your research? Is there a specific criteria that the antibiotic needs to meet to be used in the research and experimented upon?
Great question! We chose EGCg because in a study that we reviewed, it showcased significant antibiotic effect on gram positive Staphylococcus Aureus by impacting bacterial gene expression.
Because of the serious need for antibiotics, there is not much that is required for an antibiotic to be brought to initial testing like what was done in this lab. Sometimes, like in the case of honey being known to display antimicrobial characteristics, an initial educated premonition is enough to validate preliminary research. Additionally, any notable antimicrobial or antibacterial characteristics provide bolstering support for any specific compound to be tested.
For later study in animals and humans however, there are stricter requirements and approval methods.
I realize that at this point you’re still pretty early in the research, but is there any indication thus far toward what kinds of dosing would be necessary to use these green tea catechins? If so, is there any risk for catechin toxicity for the patient?
Thank you for your question! We conducted this research with the understanding that 10% was the maximum permissible dose within the human body which prevents the possibility of toxicity being attained. Additionally, EGCg extract is actually noted for is positive and helpful effects on host cells in the body and notable beneficial impact on overall health (i.e. helps reduce inflammation, aid weight loss, and potentially prevent heart and brain disease). This provides convincing support for its utility in the human body not only without negative effects but actually with positive side effects. From my preliminary research, I did not come across any potential negative side effects of this compound but that would definitely be something to consider more heavily in later research.
Liana, beautiful presentation first of all. I liked your figures, they were very easy to follow. Did you decide to use ECGg or were you assigned. to it, I am interested in the comment above.
Thank you! We were able to choose our compound and were specifically interested in EGCg because of its promising antimicrobial effect on other bacteria in previous studies and positive side effects on the healthy cells in the body.
Was there a significance in absorbance along the y axis that was seen even though it was not specifically statistically significant and what was that measured absorbance?
Thank you! I may not completely understand your inquiry but in general, increased absorbance was noted in the plates. However, since these values did not reliably lie above two standard deviations from the negative control mean, this growth cannot be deemed as statistically significant and the compound is not a probiotic. Does that answer your question?
Thank you for your comment! I predict that the observed “growth” was actually due to the coloration of the compound which lead to increased absorbance (not actually an increase in bacteria). Thus, investigating alternative methods to spectrophotometry or biocompatible compound bleaching mechanisms would be advised in future studies.
If color-removal mechanisms are unsuccessful/too difficult to be worth it, are there methods other than spectroscopy that may be available to provide measurements?
Thank you for your question. We specifically propose repeating the Mueller-Hinton agar plate since it does not require absorbency readings. Additional investigation into additional methods would be encouraged for future research. Perhaps something that reads composition based on size and charge of compounds similar to the process of Electrophoresis.
Of course! Unfortunately, we can’t make conclusive statements from the absorbance data because there was no statistically significant growth or death of the bacteria that was noted. The Mueller-Hinton agar results were convincing and showed strong antibiotic effect comparable to that of Ampicillin! However, do to the conflicting results of these absorbency tests and the agar plate, further research is required before clear correlation can be determined.
Would you consider conducting experiments with other types of tea extract other than green tea, and which ones if yes and why, or why would green tea extract be the most viable?
Although EGCg is arguably the most well known and studied extract, green tea has multiple different potential extracts. Because of the encouraging results of our study we strongly encourage investigation into all of the other plausible catechin extracts to determine if they also have antibiotic properties. The more potential antibiotics the better, as antibiotic resistance is a prolific problem that is increasing in magnitude over the recent years.
Why did you choose EGC Green tea extract for your research? Is there a specific criteria that the antibiotic needs to meet to be used in the research and experimented upon?
Great question! We chose EGCg because in a study that we reviewed, it showcased significant antibiotic effect on gram positive Staphylococcus Aureus by impacting bacterial gene expression.
Because of the serious need for antibiotics, there is not much that is required for an antibiotic to be brought to initial testing like what was done in this lab. Sometimes, like in the case of honey being known to display antimicrobial characteristics, an initial educated premonition is enough to validate preliminary research. Additionally, any notable antimicrobial or antibacterial characteristics provide bolstering support for any specific compound to be tested.
For later study in animals and humans however, there are stricter requirements and approval methods.
I realize that at this point you’re still pretty early in the research, but is there any indication thus far toward what kinds of dosing would be necessary to use these green tea catechins? If so, is there any risk for catechin toxicity for the patient?
Thank you for your question! We conducted this research with the understanding that 10% was the maximum permissible dose within the human body which prevents the possibility of toxicity being attained. Additionally, EGCg extract is actually noted for is positive and helpful effects on host cells in the body and notable beneficial impact on overall health (i.e. helps reduce inflammation, aid weight loss, and potentially prevent heart and brain disease). This provides convincing support for its utility in the human body not only without negative effects but actually with positive side effects. From my preliminary research, I did not come across any potential negative side effects of this compound but that would definitely be something to consider more heavily in later research.
10 uM is the specific maximum dosage allowed in the human body.
Liana, beautiful presentation first of all. I liked your figures, they were very easy to follow. Did you decide to use ECGg or were you assigned. to it, I am interested in the comment above.
Thank you! We were able to choose our compound and were specifically interested in EGCg because of its promising antimicrobial effect on other bacteria in previous studies and positive side effects on the healthy cells in the body.
Was there a significance in absorbance along the y axis that was seen even though it was not specifically statistically significant and what was that measured absorbance?
Thank you! I may not completely understand your inquiry but in general, increased absorbance was noted in the plates. However, since these values did not reliably lie above two standard deviations from the negative control mean, this growth cannot be deemed as statistically significant and the compound is not a probiotic. Does that answer your question?
This presentation was great! Do you have a hypothesis as to why bacteria still grew in bacteriostatic tests?
Thank you for your comment! I predict that the observed “growth” was actually due to the coloration of the compound which lead to increased absorbance (not actually an increase in bacteria). Thus, investigating alternative methods to spectrophotometry or biocompatible compound bleaching mechanisms would be advised in future studies.
If color-removal mechanisms are unsuccessful/too difficult to be worth it, are there methods other than spectroscopy that may be available to provide measurements?
Thank you for your question. We specifically propose repeating the Mueller-Hinton agar plate since it does not require absorbency readings. Additional investigation into additional methods would be encouraged for future research. Perhaps something that reads composition based on size and charge of compounds similar to the process of Electrophoresis.
Could you go a bit more into why no conclusions could be made from the data?
Of course! Unfortunately, we can’t make conclusive statements from the absorbance data because there was no statistically significant growth or death of the bacteria that was noted. The Mueller-Hinton agar results were convincing and showed strong antibiotic effect comparable to that of Ampicillin! However, do to the conflicting results of these absorbency tests and the agar plate, further research is required before clear correlation can be determined.
Would you consider conducting experiments with other types of tea extract other than green tea, and which ones if yes and why, or why would green tea extract be the most viable?
Although EGCg is arguably the most well known and studied extract, green tea has multiple different potential extracts. Because of the encouraging results of our study we strongly encourage investigation into all of the other plausible catechin extracts to determine if they also have antibiotic properties. The more potential antibiotics the better, as antibiotic resistance is a prolific problem that is increasing in magnitude over the recent years.