Molecular Biology Technology in Infectious Diseases
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2010-04-06
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Journal of Public Health
Abstract
Genetic engineering brought biotechnology into a new era by a revolution in molecular biology which has occurred over the past several decades. The rapid developments in recombinant DNA techniques have made it possible to genetically alter organisms to give them more useful traits. Molecular biology provided a powerful tool for manipulation microorganisms for medical, industrial, and research uses i.e. detection of infectious diseases, pharmaceutical production, vaccine production, and biosensing. The knowledge in molecular biology leads to the development in detection of infectious diseases: A) hybridization, DNA probes are used to locate nucleotide sequences of interest in individual cells or nucleic acid extracted from samples. B) amplification, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its application can be used to create millions copies of target sequences within a few hours to detect organisms present in extremely small numbers as well as those that cannot yet be grown in culture. C) DNA sequencing, provides a mechanism for determining the evolutionary relatedness of organisms. D) enzymatic digestion, restriction enzymes cut interest DNA into fragments. Each microorganism can be identified by numbers and size of DNA fragments in gel electrophoresis. Many pharmaceutical products are now produced by genetically engineered microorganisms which are safer and more economical than extracting it from animal tissues. In vaccine production, the genes can be cloned into yeast or bacteria so that these cells produce large amount of immunizing proteins. This type of vaccine is currently used to prevent hepatitis B and cervical cancer in humans. Molecular biology also leads to the development of biosensing. High sensitivity of biosensing is necessary for the detection of bioterrorism clues.
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Journal of Public Health; Vol.39 No.2 May-August 2009; 199-213