Inducible Computational Bactosensor to Improve Post-Stroke Treatment
Another course-related work from previous semester is presented here (I am not expert in this field, so, please read this as a blog post, not a scientific paper/project. If you are further interested in, I highly recommend you to read main articles referred in the text.).
ABSTRACT
Stroke is one the main leading causes of the death around the world, especially among aging population, and Singapore has one of the fastest growing population for aging people [1]. After first stroke, ~ 25% patients likely to have second stroke [2] [3]. On the other hand, urinary infection due to dysbiosis of the microbiome is observed after the stroke. This might cause high and systemic inflammation which negatively effects the survival outcome of the patients after-stroke [4] [5] [6] [7]. In fact, antibiotic treatment is very common for stroke patients. However, recent studies in the mice showed this might have deadly consequences after the stroke due to decreased complexity of the microbiome and killing the beneficial, “good”, bacteria living in the gut microbiome. Recently, fecal transplantation or probiotic drug and yoghurt therapies applied in stroke patients having positive effects on improving the life quality of the patients post-stroke [8] [9] [10]. Unfortunately, the amount and benefits of those on elderly patients is still controversial. Here we aim to develop inducible whole cell living bactosensor using the bacteria in the gut to overcome these limitations. The bactosensor senses the high inflammation in the gut via logic-gate based computation and regulates it via releasing the specific molecules targeting the bacteria causing the inflammation. The microbial kill switches prevent bactosensor to spread and have unwanted outcomes. In addition, since the circuit is only active in the presence of over-activated inflammatory signals, it works in a safe and controlled fashion. To date, researchers has been aiming to improve the life quality of the stroke patients. With this aim, we hope to make recovery period faster after stroke, improve the life quality of the patients, and prevent the likelihood of second stroke. On the other hand, it is important to reveal main source of the dysbiosis after stroke in the gut which is still an ongoing research. In future, we hope to develop more precise bactosensors with better understanding of microbiome community in the gut.
- Details of the project was described as a presentation.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my colleagues, Chua nd Hoo.
References
1 https://www.nrdo.gov.sg/publications/stroke
2 https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm
3 https://www.stroke.org.uk/sites/default/file /state_of_the_nation_2017_final_1.pdf
4 https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.00718
5 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1177/0271678X16636890
6 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1038/nm.4068
7 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1038/nrneurol.2012.98
8 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1114-16.2016
9 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1080/19490976.2017.1344809
10 https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.011800
