Great question! My best guess is that EGCg provides some sort of nutrient for the bacteria but that this nutrient is toxic at high doses. Perhaps it is a similar idea as sugar being good for people in small amounts but harmful in large amounts. I would love to be able to look into it more, though.
Hi Sofia, I really enjoyed your presentation! If it were discovered that EGCg were effective as an antibiotic, would it only be a matter of time before bacteria become resistant to EGCg as well?
Hi Aeryn! Good question. I do think it is very likely that if EGCg were eventually approved as an antibiotic it would only be a matter of time before bacteria started becoming resistant to it. Bacteria become resistant to certain antibiotics after different amounts of time, but some resistance has appeared as quickly as one year after the release of an antibiotic! Hopefully, novel antibiotics will have been identified before resistance to EGCg would appear.
Interesting question, it is so hard to decide! I think my favorite part of this project was knowing that the research my group and I did has real-life implications. I loved knowing that the research being done mattered.
Great question! I didn’t mention it in the presentation, but experiments against Salmonella Typhimurium provide a lot of valuable information, because S. Typhimurium is a gram-negative bacteria meaning it is the hardest type of bacteria for antibiotics to penetrate. This is because gram-negative bacteria have an outer lipid membrane that gram-positive bacteria lack, and this extra layer is especially difficult for antibiotics to penetrate. Therefore, antibiotics that are successful against Salmonella Typhimurium will most likely also be effective against other gram-negative bacteria as well as gram-positive bacteria.
Do you have any hypothesis as to why exceptionally low concentrations of EGCg could cause increased bacterial population?
Great question! My best guess is that EGCg provides some sort of nutrient for the bacteria but that this nutrient is toxic at high doses. Perhaps it is a similar idea as sugar being good for people in small amounts but harmful in large amounts. I would love to be able to look into it more, though.
Hi Sofia, I really enjoyed your presentation! If it were discovered that EGCg were effective as an antibiotic, would it only be a matter of time before bacteria become resistant to EGCg as well?
Hi Aeryn! Good question. I do think it is very likely that if EGCg were eventually approved as an antibiotic it would only be a matter of time before bacteria started becoming resistant to it. Bacteria become resistant to certain antibiotics after different amounts of time, but some resistance has appeared as quickly as one year after the release of an antibiotic! Hopefully, novel antibiotics will have been identified before resistance to EGCg would appear.
This was a very well-thought out presentation! What was your favorite part of the semester involving this project?
Interesting question, it is so hard to decide! I think my favorite part of this project was knowing that the research my group and I did has real-life implications. I loved knowing that the research being done mattered.
as far as the range of EGCg go do you feel that it could target other “cousins” or bacteria genetically related to salmonella
Great question! I didn’t mention it in the presentation, but experiments against Salmonella Typhimurium provide a lot of valuable information, because S. Typhimurium is a gram-negative bacteria meaning it is the hardest type of bacteria for antibiotics to penetrate. This is because gram-negative bacteria have an outer lipid membrane that gram-positive bacteria lack, and this extra layer is especially difficult for antibiotics to penetrate. Therefore, antibiotics that are successful against Salmonella Typhimurium will most likely also be effective against other gram-negative bacteria as well as gram-positive bacteria.