New Research Areas in Clinical Microbiology

I would like to outline a few areas in Clinical Microbiology that have become major research disciplines over the last 10 years that may now impact Health and Allied Sciences. They encompass (1) COVID-19, (2) biofilms, (3) microbiomes, (4) nanotechnology, and (5) probiotics. As well as being direct research areas, they overlap with each other, and they are beginning to overlap in important ways with Health and Allied Sciences—hence the importance of contributing papers on these subjects to the Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU (JHAS-NU).

There have been 43 publications on COVID-19 in JHAS-NU since the journal began in 2016, but the subject of all except for 6 of these articles is direct patient care. Three[1] [2] [3] have some diagnostic care component and the subject of the other three is the laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19.[4] [5] [6] Since JHAS-NU began in 2016, there have been 2 publications on biofilms,[7] [8] 3 publications on the microbiome,[9] [10] [11] 2 publications on nanotechnology,[12] [13] and 1 publication on probiotics.[14]

The following are some examples of current research impacting Health and Allied Sciences in the above-mentioned areas:

• A complete volume in Methods in Microbiology has been devoted to COVID-19 on diverse clinical subjects.[15] This book includes chapters on the following:

  • - Detection methods for of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (Chapter 1).

  • - Chapter 2 describes a new method for analyzing the seasonal behavior of COVID-19 and Chapter 8 describes the application of this method in Australia by revealing a continental link to COVID-19 and seasonality.

  • - The emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 as revealed by current molecular diagnostics assays (Chapter 3).

  • - Chapter 4 describes the therapy and diagnosis of COVID-19 using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR).

  • - Nanotechnological strategies for COVID-19 vaccine development (Chapter 5).

  • - The detection of immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 by hypersensitivity methods (Chapter 6).

  • - How hesitancy to get vaccinated against COVID-19 might be overcome (Chapter 7).

  • - Chapter 9 reviews the use of COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk and immunocompromised patients.

• A recent methodological review describes technology that has the potential to be translated into clinics for better prevention, detection, and personalized treatment of biofilm-related infections.[16] The book that this chapter is contained in also has many other chapters on Biofilms that are worth reading.

• The Microbiome has been implicated in many different human anatomical sites including the gut–lung axis and its potential in improving or producing vaccines against COVID-19.[17]

• Nanotechnology has now found its way into many areas of Health and Allied Sciences including new antimicrobial agents,[18] treatment of osteoarthritis,[19] cancer therapy,[20] wound healing,[21] and many other applications.[22]

• Probiotics are bacteria that are ingested for positive health outcomes that are present in many foods such as yoghurt and sour dough bread. They are now also available in medicinal capsules for ingestion. Furthermore, a recent article has reviewed the potential of probiotics as ingestible antiviral agents to manage COVID-19.[23]

Consequently, it is hoped that the readers and contributors to JHAS-NU are encouraged and inspired to contribute to one or more of the five above-mentioned areas of research.

Conflict of Interest

None declared.

• References

• 1 Dsouza TS, Hegde MN, Pais KP. e-learning: an uphill to reshaping learning in dentistry in India in the COVID-19 pandemic era. J Health Allied Sci NU 2021; 12 (02) 175-178
• 2 Madiyal A, Bhat S, Babu GS, Achalli S. Impact of COVID-19 on dental education. J Health Allied Sci NU 2021; 11 (02) 057-60
• 3 Prasad DK, Prasad DA, Parakh MK. Coronavirus and its impact on dental fraternity. J Health Allied Sci NU 2020; 10 (02) 49-56
• 4 Karunasagar I, Karunasagar I. Ongoing COVID-19 global crisis and scientific challenges. J Health Allied Sci NU 2020; 10 (01) 01-2
• 5 Ramesh A, Potdar R, Bhandary R. Oral fluids—a diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a review. J Health Allied Sci NU 2021; 11 (03) 126-129
• 6 Srivatsa R, Hosmane GB, Venkataram R, Baikunje N. Pneumothorax in SARS-CoV-2 affected patients. J Health Allied Sci NU 2021; 12 (01) 79-82
• 7 D AP, Prasad BR, Shetty V, Shastry CS. Biofilms produced by Candida yeasts and its consequences: a review. J Health Sci NU 2013; 3 (02) 113-121
• 8 Rai A, Vittal RV, Mohan Raj JR. Isolation, characterization, and comparison of efficiencies of bacteriophages to reduce planktonic and biofilm-associated Staphylococcus aureus . J Health Allied Sci NU. 2020; 10 (03) 102-108
• 9 Ashwath P, Sannejal AD. The action of efflux pump genes in conferring drug resistance to Klebsiella species and their inhibition. J Health Allied Sci NU 2021; 12 (01) 24-31
• 10 Das D, Shenoy N, Shetty S. Understanding the risk of peri-implantitis. J Health Allied Sci NU 2023; (e-pub ahead of print). DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1766125.
• 11 Hegde MN. Mrinalini. Dysbiosis of oral microflora: a review. J Health Sci NU 2018; 8: 34-39
• 12 Gananathan P, Chakraborty A, Karunasagar I. Cancer theranostics: bridging conventional and nano-photodynamic therapy. J Health Allied Sci NU 2020; 10 (01) 03-8
• 13 Kaira' LS, Singh R. Nanotechnology: the new era of technology. J Health Sci NU 2012; 2 (04) 88-92
• 14 K MJ, Shenoy N, Talwar A, Shetty S. Clinical effect of pro-biotic containing Bacillus coagulans on plaque induced gingivitis: a randomised clinical pilot study. J Health Allied Sci NU 2017; 7 (03) 7-12
• 15 Pavia CS, Gurtler V. Preface. In: Pavia CS, Gurtler V. eds. Methods in Microbiology. Covid-19: Biomedical Perspectives. Vol. 50. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier; 2022: xvii
• 16 Alcàcer-Almansa J, Arévalo-Jaimes BV, Blanco-Cabra N, Torrents E. Methods for studying biofilms: microfluidics and translation in the clinical context. In: Gurtler V, Patrauchan M. eds. Methods in Microbiology. Vol. 53. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023: 195-233
• 17 Oh S, Seo H. Dietary intervention with functional foods modulating gut microbiota for improving the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Heliyon 2023; 9 (05) e15668
• 18 Wahab S, Khan T, Adil M, Khan A. Mechanistic aspects of plant-based silver nanoparticles against multi-drug resistant bacteria. Heliyon 2021; 7 (07) e07448
• 19 Wu C, He Y, Yao Y, Yang H, Lu F. Exosomes treating osteoarthritis: hope with challenge. Heliyon 2023; 9 (01) e13152
• 20 Zhang W, Taheri-Ledari R, Ganjali F. et al. Nanoscale bioconjugates: a review of the structural attributes of drug-loaded nanocarrier conjugates for selective cancer therapy. Heliyon 2022; 8 (06) e09577
• 21 Nandhini SN, Sisubalan N, Vijayan A. et al. Recent advances in green synthesized nanoparticles for bactericidal and wound healing applications. Heliyon 2023; 9 (02) e13128
• 22 Ball AS, Patil S, Soni S. Introduction into nanotechnology and microbiology. Methods Microbiol 2019; 46: 1-18
• 23 Tomkinson S, Triscott C, Schenk E, Foey A. The potential of probiotics as ingestible adjuvants and immune modulators for antiviral immunity and management of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19. Pathogens 2023; 12 (07) 928

Publication History

Article published online:
22 September 2023