Epstein-Barr Virus Lab

EBV is associated with malignant tumors, in particular: Burkitt’s lymphoma, which is especially prevalent in immunocompromised individuals. EBV has the ability to immortalize B-lymphocytes by hindering apoptosis signals within the cell. The virally encoded cells, therefore, proliferate to high numbers in the body leading to malignancies. EBV can then change the B-lymphocytes to lymphoblastoid cell lines. Individuals who carry the virus in most cases do not go on to have Burkitt’s Lymphoma because the immune system can recognize the transformed cells and destroy them before they cause malignancies. The immune system in immunocompromised patients, however, is not typically able to destroy these cells, making the individual at risk for malignancies

A differential staining procedure used in microbiology is called the Gram stain. The significance of the Gram staining procedure is that it differentiates the bacteria into two groups. The Gram reaction of a bacterium adds valuable information for the treatment of disease. The Endospore stain is a special stain that is used to determine the presence of endospores in bacteria. This stain is used to detect if certain bacterium cell contain highly opposing spores within their vegetative cells. The acid-fast staining technique differentiates bacteria into distinctive groups. The importance of the technique is that it can identify all bacteria in the genus Mycobacterium. Two pathogens are included in this genus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae.

Due to the colonization and urbanization of Africa the disease began to spread quickly, inventions like the car and poor hygiene in hospitals allowed the space for the disease to become more widespread.

Isolating and characterize a novel phage from the environment requires several steps and several frustrations. By isolating and investigating a phage found in the Pullman region can hopefully lead to a newly discovered phage that can help researchers discover more about the life cycle and process of phage infection. Some phage infection can be good due to infecting the bacteria that is not wanted or is harmful to the environment or humans. Within this lab, there were steps taken necessary to isolate a novel phage that was obtained from the surrounding Pullman area. This report reflects plaques being isolated but then stopped due to errors and loss of plates. The final touches and procedures were accomplished with a given DNA ladder that was

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the reversion rate and recombination rate of two mutant T4 bacteriophages, rII 29 and rII 31. Through recombination rate, the map unit between the two mutants was calculated.

# of plaques/(volume plated x reciprocal of the dilution factor of the dilution tube used)

Some viruses also have an outer bag of lipo-protein called an envelope. After a virus attaches to a living cell, it either enters the cell to release the genetic information, or, the virus injects the information through the cells outer lining. Thus changing the cells natural functions and forcing the cell to spend its energy to create copies of the virus. The cell will go on making copies of the virus until the cell is used up and dies. The virus then leaves the dead cell and invades a nearby cell and the process starts all over. There are five types of human herpes virus: Varicella zoster which causes chickenpox, Epstein Barr virus which causes infectious mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus which can cause cytomegalic inclusion disease in infants, and herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2.

Compare and contrast tumour suppressor genes and proto-oncogenes. Discuss an example of how recent advances in our understanding of these genes have led to the development of a novel therapy that is being used in the treatment of human cancer.

The first thing to do with a situation like this would be to first find out all the needed information about the gene you can. The first important thing would be the size of the gene on the chromosome, because viruses only have a certain amount of DNA/RNA they can hold inside their virus particle. The gene is found on chromosome 20 and is 15,438 bp in length (NCBI). So, the only type of gene therapy vector that would be able to carry a gene that large would be the Herpes Simplex Virus. HSV has a carrying capacity of over 30kb, so this would more than fit the entire length of the gene in the virus particle. It also is a good fit because after looking up information on PRPc, because it is a cell-surface copper-binding glycoprotein expressed

The neuropathological hallmarks of AD are the presence of plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. (18 -20)

The study conducted was to determine the unknown bacterium that was given by the Microbiology lab instructor. The purpose of this exercise is to go through a series of testing in order to identify a microorganism, how it grows, reproduces and how the bacteria can be treated and killed. The techniques involved in this study included; what type of agar to use, inoculating, proper sterilization, gram staining and how to handle bacteria in order to avoid contamination.

In this lab, I investigated aerobic respiration in the Krebs cycle through the means of a color indicator. The Krebs cycle is a vital metabolic pathway that occurs in the mitochondria and produces energy utilized by living cells. In order for the Krebs cycle to occur, glucose needs to combine with oxygen. Furthermore, in this lab, I used Malonate as an inhibitor; a competitive inhibitor binds to an enzyme’s active site inhibiting the substrate from binding which ceases the production.

Cell filtration is often necessary for diagnostic lab tests. One example of this is for cystic fibrosis patients. Individuals with cystic fibrosis often get lung infections due to the thick mucus in their lungs. In order to prescribe antibiotics for these lung infections, a bacterial culture needs to be performed, which requires bacterial samples to be separated from the thick mucus of sputum. Passive filtration is the most commonly used type of filtration in cell sorting for diagnostic purposes and extorts cells physical properties (Yoon et al., 2016). Dead end filtration is a form of passive filtration where the filtrate is added perpendicularly to the filter (Yoon et al., 2016). While dead end filtration is relatively easy to perform, larger particles can block the filter, stopping the flow of filtrate through the filter. This blockage problem causes dead end filtration to be underutilized (Mugnier, Howell, & Ruf, 2000). It has been shown that a cycle of forward and backward flushes can dislodge larger particles from the filter- allowing more of the smaller particles to rush through the filter pores (Smith, Vigneswaran, Ngo, Ben-Aim, & Nguyen, 2005)- but what percentage of backward flush is most efficient in a duty cycle with a constant amount

The Epstein-Barr virus has been implicated to have involvement as it can be found in 25-40% immunodeficiency variant cases of Burkit’s lymphoma. Normal gene expression and translation process of cellular microRNA has been shown to be interfered with by Epstein-Barr virus interaction with the cellular microRNA. Burkitt’s lymphoma affects patients with CD4 T cell counts greater than 200/mm3, which may suggest that immunity does not have a role in the matter, however, in our case study it was not the case.

Synopsis of the Comparison of Real-Time PCR and Antigen Assays for Detection of Hepatitis E Virus in Blood Donors