Under the Guidance of Professor Betty Daniel who is known for her abundant knowledge and the experiences she has had in the field of Biological Sciences. In our college she is the most ideal mentor with her only objective of teaching is to impart real quality education and accept no theories, nut to apply logical reasoning. Anybody interested in the world of DNA and even Microorganisms would marvel at the way these tiny molecules and organisms work, and how beautiful their mechanisms are and this would automatically make one love and learn more and more just to enjoy and get fascinated how perfectly they are all regulated. Betty Daniel also given a new platform to the students of undergraduate level by giving them ideas and a platform to come up with a real research project that usually is encouraged at the Masters level in our current educational system, and I too happened to join Ma’am under a project on Urinary Tract Infection in Diabetic Patients as not much of research has been done in this area while this infection is affecting around 40% of the Diabetic Patients and there aren’t much of remedies other than the few antibiotics. These factors made it more interesting to work on the bacteria responsible for this infection especially in the Diabetic Patients and to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of 10 antibiotics for a particular strain majorly responsible for the infection. Various Herbal extracts were also used at different concentrations to test their effect against the same Bacterial Strain.
The initial step involved collection of Urine samples from various clinics from the Diabetic Patients and culturing them on the High Chrome UTI Agar to determine the different UTI causing Bacteria that get a color depending on which strain it is, due to the High Chrome medium. This is further confirmed by a series of Biochemical tests. A survey is conducted on these patients and the other necessary details are taken with special emphasis on the recurrence of UTI since a major problem with these bacteria is its ability to re-infect once it has been successful in infecting, especially in women. After 24 hours incubation, the bacterial count helps us find out if the individual is infected. After collecting 100 samples it was found that the major bacteria infecting was Staphylococcus and Escherichia coli. And women were more prone to the infection comprising 30% of the infections while male comprised only 17% of the total infected patients. There was high risk of UTI in patients with high cholesterol and with renal disorders and the age group of 30-45 years showed initial onset of the infection while the people above 50 years suffered a recurrent infection. Smoking and Drinking also showed a direct relationship with the infection, reasons still unknown but assuming that these lead to High Blood Pressure further causing Diabetes and this high sugar levels act as a source of nutrition for the bacteria to grow.
Pseudomonas aerogenesa is another common bacterium infecting the diabetic patients. This bacteria was inoculated in the different herbal extracts used in varying concentrations and after incubation for 24 hours, the turbidity is measured by taking the nephlometric readings and more turbidity readings imply lesser effect of the herbs on the bacteria. The different herbs used were- red globe grapes, green grapes, turmeric, corn silk and curd. These herbs are mashed in aseptic conditions and the extract is filtered and various concentrations of 1 mew gram/ ml to 9 mew grams/ml are prepared. It was found that the skin of grapes were more effective than the pulp and red globe grapes were more effective than green grapes, while curd showed a little effect, but turmeric and cornsilk showed no effect at all.
The MIC for 10 antibiotics like amoxicillin, norfloxacin, gentamycin, tetracycline etc are tested with the MIC strips loaded with the various concentrations that were prepared after serial dilution and and after the nutrient agar is swab cultured with the Pseudomonas aerogenosa, the discs are loaded and incubated for 24 hrs after which the zone of inhibition helps us to determine the sensitivity of the bacteria towards the particular antibiotic and also helps us determine the resistant clones and the intermediate concentrations and this differs from the antibiotic to antibiotic depending on the strain of bacteria. Norfloxacin, levofloxacin etc showed to be highly sensitive at higher concentrations while antibiotics like amoxicillin, gentamycin etc were sensitive at lower concentrations giving resistant clones at higher concentrations and this gave the Minimum Inhibitory concentrations of that antibiotic.
Conclusion: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract is People with diabetes have a higher risk of a UTI because of changes in the immune system. Any other disorder that suppresses the immune system raises the risk of a urinary infection. Grapes prove to be effective against the bacterial strain causing UTI. Few antibiotics like vancomycin proved to be effective at all concentrations while few in higher concentrations. More research can be carried out by studying about the molecular aspects of these bacteria causing the infection and this opens out a great opportunity in the Pharmaceutical sector to disable those proteins of the bacteria since antibiotics may give few side effects and there can be few herbal pills other than cranberry pills to combat the infection and prevent
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