Word: bacterias
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...today is the effort to understand and manipulate this highly tuned system. The acquired immune response, for example, actually comes in two parts. The first involves antibodies, the molecules produced to match, like a key fitting into a lock, the multiple proteins that coat the surfaces of viruses and bacteria. The more keys on the immune cell's ring, the more likely that the cell can lock onto and destroy a pathogen...
...illnesses that have seemed beyond their reach. One such candidate is heart disease--which may involve the immune system in ways nobody ever imagined just a few years ago. The buildup of fatty cholesterol deposits on artery walls may begin, it turns out, with an inflammation perhaps caused by bacteria. This immune response alters the arteries in ways that make them prone to cholesterol damage. A vaccine that could prevent the initial infection or tamp down the inflammatory response might, doctors believe, prevent the chain of events that leads to heart attacks from getting started in the first place...
...While enrofloxacin kills the type of bacteria that sickened the chickens, it doesn't quite eliminate a different strain, called Campylobacter, that lives in the intestine. The surviving germs, which don't cause any poultry diseases, quickly multiply and spread the genes that helped them fend off the antibiotic. Six weeks later, when the broilers are carved up at the slaughterhouse, resistant bacteria spill out everywhere. Even with the best sanitary controls, some campylobacter is shrink-wrapped along with the thighs, breasts and drumsticks that are delivered to your kitchen counter...
...problem is that bacteria share genetic information much more readily than anyone thought. Individual cells--often from different species--routinely exchange tiny loops of DNA called plasmids. They will even pick up snippets of DNA from dead bacteria or viruses. Once a strain of bacteria survives destruction by antibiotics, chances are it will eventually pass on the genes for resistance to other germs. "It's a numbers game," says Dr. Stuart Levy, a Tufts researcher and author of The Antibiotic Paradox. And because they live everywhere and reproduce quickly, bacteria have the upper hand...
...According to scientists familiar with the manufacturing of weapons-grade anthrax, the investigation is likely to be frustrating, simply because so many agencies and individuals are familiar with the process, and have access to this specific strain of the bacteria...