Microbial attachment and pharmaceutical equipment

 

 

An important factor related to this consideration, especially for when cleanroom equipment is selected, is the surface finish and surface roughness. This focus on topography is particularly useful for stainless steel given the commonality of this material, along with anodized aluminum, for the production of pharmaceutical processing equipment. Hence, specifying appropriate finishes and limits of roughness should form part of equipment and facility specifications, as informed by the principles of quality by design. The factors affecting finish and roughness are of importance in relation to microbial attachment and the pharmaceutical sector should develop appropriate equipment design specifications and User Requirement Specifications.

Tim Sandle's new paper:

Sandle, T. (2021) Microbial attachment and pharmaceutical equipment, American Pharmaceutical Review, 24 (6): 84-90

https://www.americanpharmaceuticalreview.com/1429-AuthorProfile/3441-Tim-Sandle-Ph-D/

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)

A scientific, cultural, and epidemiological history of facemasks and face coverings

 

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) has put the wearing of facemasks and face coverings to the fore, taking masks outside the traditional arenas of surgical theatres and cleanrooms and into the public domain. Facemasks have an interesting history, and this article presents a potted overview of the development of facemasks, ending in current times.

 

Even with our current knowledge, facemasks have limitations, and the article concludes with an assessment of the capabilities of modern facemasks as well as demonstrating the limitations of other forms of face coverings. Surgical masks have two functions: the first to protect the patient from a potential source of infection—the wearer; the second, to protect the wearer from another potential source of infection—the patient. The former remains more effective than the latter. Respiratory masks decrease in efficiency over time as the collection of particles hampers breathability. However, advanced technologies like artificial intelligence are being harnessed to improve mask design and materials.

 

This article has shown that facemasks are more complex than perhaps their simple-appearing form suggests. The article also charts the gradual development of the mask and what now seems, with the benefit of hindsight, a slow adoption. The rate of adoption was seemingly slower with the surgical mask in the medical and healthcare setting than it was for the respiratory mask (which was primarily development for emergency services and the military).

 

 

As well as charting the development of the mask, this article has also reviewed the use of masks alongside their role in pandemics, drawing some parallels with the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, together with an overview of the effectiveness of face coverings.

 

Sandle, T. (2021) A scientific, cultural, and epidemiological history of facemasks and face coverings, IST The Journal, Winter 2021, pp16 - 24

 

To view the article go to Sandle mask

 

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)

Oral Health and Overall Health

What is Oral Health?

Written by

Alyssa Hill (with permission)

Good oral health and hygiene begin with clean teeth, proper dental care habits, and awareness of daily behaviors.

Brushing and flossing properly from a young age helps prevent oral diseases—such as cavities, gum disease, and oral cancer—as you age.

Nutrition, regular teeth cleanings, and your medical history also impact your oral health standing.

If you do not practice good oral hygiene, you are at a higher risk of developing serious oral conditions and diseases. These diseases include cavities, gingivitis, periodontal disease, bruxism-related conditions, cracked tooth syndrome, and more.

Link Between Oral Health and Overall Health

Your everyday lifestyle, general health status, and choices can positively or negatively impact your oral health standing.

Your diet and the amount of alcohol you drink weekly can influence how healthy your mouth is. Whether or not you use tobacco products also impacts your dental health.

Hormonal changes throughout life, such as during puberty and pregnancy, put you at a higher risk of developing serious oral conditions. Taking certain medications for health conditions (e.g. diabetes or cancer) or abusing drugs can also take a toll on your oral health.

Common risk factors associated with poor oral health include:

• Heart disease — periodontal disease (advanced gum disease) is linked to higher rates of heart disease. Poor oral health increases the risk of a bacterial infection reaching the bloodstream, which can eventually spread to the heart valves.
• Diabetes and stroke — untreated tooth decay puts you at an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes. There is also a higher chance of a stroke occurring as you age.
• Weakened immune system — poor dental health results in a weakened immune system, which makes you more prone to developing illnesses, infections, and diseases.

Nutrition and Your Oral Health

An unbalanced diet consisting of sugary foods, fast food, and other processed foods increases your risk of developing oral diseases over time.

Sugar plays a direct role in the development of cavities. This is because the bacteria in plaque use sugar as energy and then release acid as a “waste product.” As a result, your enamel dissolves and cavities form.

Tooth decay progresses as you age, and the effects of sugar on the teeth are lifelong. In other words, eating unhealthy foods long-term results in more buildup of dental plaque and cavities. If left untreated, tooth loss and soft-tissue (gum) damage can also occur.

Studies show that there may be a way to minimize the risk of tooth decay if you limit added sugars to 5 percent of your total daily intake.

Natural sugars found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products are not included in this percentage. Learn more about how your diet impacts your oral health.

Medications and Your Oral Health

Many prescription and over-the-counter medications can lead to uncomfortable and serious oral health conditions.

Chemotherapy can cause a variety of side effects. This includes—but is not limited to—dry mouth, cavities, gingivitis, periodontal disease, soft tissue reactions, mouth ulcers, and oral thrush.

Some medications (e.g., antidepressants and blood pressure medications) can cause dry mouth. This is a condition where the salivary glands in the mouth do not produce enough saliva.

Without proper saliva production, your mouth cannot rinse out bacteria effectively, which may result in cavities.

Learn more about which medications impact your dental health.

Alcohol Abuse and Your Oral Health

Long-term and excessive alcohol consumption negatively impacts your teeth and gums, which can result in serious dental conditions. These conditions include:

• Enamel erosion
• Dry mouth
• Cavities
• Bruxism (teeth grinding)
• Periodontal disease
• Mouth sores
• Oral cancer

Other minor conditions that may develop due to alcohol abuse include tooth discoloration and bad breath.

Learn more about how alcohol abuse and addiction negatively affect your oral health.

Drug Abuse and Your Oral Health

Cavities and periodontal disease are more prevalent in drug addicts than in non-drug users. This is mainly due to the fact that addicts neglect regular dentist visits and therefore have more tartar (hardened plaque) on their teeth.

The long-term use of illegal drugs (e.g. amphetamines, cocaine, and opiates) also cause serious oral health complications. These conditions include:

• Oral cancer
• Cavities
• Gum disease
• Mouth sores
• Teeth grinding
• Dry mouth

In more severe cases, meth addicts can develop “meth mouth.” This condition can result in rotten teeth, cracked teeth, permanent gum damage, and eventually tooth loss.

Learn more about how drugs can severely damage your oral health.

Tobacco Products and Your Oral Health

Tobacco and nicotine are harmful substances in cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical that is responsible for 480,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

More than 16 million cigarette smokers suffer from smoking-related diseases, such as heart disease, respiratory diseases, and lung cancer.

Long-term tobacco and nicotine users commonly suffer from minor and serious oral health conditions. This includes—but is not limited to—bad breath, dry mouth, tooth discoloration, cavities, oral cancer, and silent gum disease.

Teeth whitening can often reverse the effects of tooth discoloration.

Options include:

• LED whitening kits like Hismile or Snow
• Teeth whitening strips
• Whitening toothpastes
• Whitening mouthwash

Learn more about how nicotine and tobacco can negatively impact your oral health.

Diabetes and Your Oral Health

Diabetes impacts all parts of your body, including the mouth. If you have high levels of glucose (sugar) in your saliva, harmful bacteria can grow faster. Over time, food particles and bacteria result in high levels of plaque (a sticky film that forms on teeth).

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to infections and pain affecting your teeth, gums, tongue, palate, jaw, cheeks, and/or the mouth’s floor.

Learn which oral conditions commonly impact people with uncontrolled diabetes.

4 Easy Ways to Maintain Good Oral Health

To reduce the chance of developing a minor or serious oral condition, staying on top of basic oral care practices is essential:

1. Brush Your Teeth

Brushing at least twice a day is one of the most important oral care habits because it keeps the teeth and mouth healthy. Using fluoride-based toothpaste also stimulates the gums, which helps prevent gum disease and cavities.

2. Floss Regularly

Brushing at least twice a day is Properly flossing teeth daily helps reduce the chance of cavities forming between teeth. Flossing removes plaque and food in places where toothbrushes can’t reach. Establishing a normal routine reduces the chance of developing cavities and other oral conditions.

3. Drink Fluoridated Water

Fluoride is a natural mineral found in soil and rocks that helps prevent cavities. Over the last 70 years, small amounts of fluoride have been added to dental materials to help strengthen tooth enamel.

4. Go to the Dentist

Regular teeth cleanings and dental exams are essential for oral disease prevention. You should get your teeth professionally cleaned every six months.

 

Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)

Optimizing Disinfection to Prevent Spread of Antibiotic Resistance in Wastewater

 

Image: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, abound in our wastewater effluents where they could be spreading the resistance gene to other (pathogenic) bacteria. Scientists have now begun to explore ways of preventing this via optimal disinfection processes | Photo courtesy: Prawny on Pixabay

Scientists map the degradation of antibiotic resistance gene mecA by common disinfectants to find ways to minimize the spread of resistance in waterbodies

 

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a global threat today, owing in part to the efficiency with which resistance spreads among them. Some of this spread happens in waterbodies—and our wastewater systems are no exception. A group of scientists from Korea and the US has now conducted some of the groundwork needed to optimize disinfection processes and minimize the spread of antibiotic resistance through waterbodies.

 

For nearly a century, improvement in human healthcare has depended heavily on the efficiency with which we can treat bacterial diseases. But today, antibiotic resistance—the ability of certain mutant super-bacteria to block out antibiotics—poses a major threat to healthcare, food security, and overall social development worldwide, threatening to upend much of the progress our civilization has achieved.

 

Scientists are now urgently attempting to tackle this problem from various angles. Professor Yunho Lee at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea, whose contribution is published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology, is looking at it from the point of view of his field of research—wastewater treatment. “Bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their resistance genes, abound in various aquatic environments. These are therefore dangerous breeding grounds for antibiotic resistance, where through a process called horizontal gene transfer, resistant bacteria could transfer the resistance gene to other bacteria, which could then increase the antibiotic resistance levels among the members of the bacterial community, including pathogens. We could reduce this occurrence, however, if we determined which disinfectants and how much of them could safely and efficiently kill the resistant bacteria and gene in our drinking water and wastewater effluents.”

 

As an initial step towards achieving this, Prof. Lee and his team studied the effects of various amounts of chlorine, ozone, and ultraviolet radiation on the degradation of both extracellular and intracellular (contained within bacteria) methicillin (a type of penicillin) resistance gene, mecA, of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus in water. Based on high resolution observations using scanning electron microscopy and an analysis of the effect of the disinfectants on the reaction dynamics and cell structure, the scientists developed a reaction kinetics model for each disinfectant versus mecA in addition to a method for measuring the degradation rates. Their experiments verified the effectiveness of their models and method.

 

“Our findings are a key step in determining the optimal conditions for wastewater disinfection process operations for eliminating mecA and mitigating the spread of antibiotic resistance through our municipal wastewater systems,” says Prof. Lee. “In this way, our research significantly contributes to public health protection against infection by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

 

Moreover, Prof. Lee is hopeful that their models can be applied to other segments of double stranded DNA as well, such as those of certain viruses. Thus, newer approaches like these could hopefully lead to sustainable solutions to the looming antibiotic resistance problem and more in the near future.

 

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)