What Is Medical Microbiology?

It mainly studies the morphology, structure, metabolic activities, genetics and mutations, pathogenic mechanisms, anti-infective immunity of the body, laboratory diagnosis and specific prevention related to human diseases. The purpose of studying medical microbiology is to understand the biological characteristics and pathogenicity of pathogenic microorganisms; to understand the human body's immune function to pathogenic microorganisms, the relationship between infection and immunity and its laws; to understand laboratory diagnostic methods and prevention of infectious diseases in principle.

Microorganism medicine

(Subject)

It mainly studies the morphology, structure, metabolic activities, genetics and mutations, pathogenic mechanisms, anti-infective immunity of the body, laboratory diagnosis and specific prevention related to human diseases. The purpose of studying medical microbiology is to understand the biological characteristics and pathogenicity of pathogenic microorganisms; to understand the human body's immune function to pathogenic microorganisms, the relationship between infection and immunity and its laws; to understand

Medical microbiology is a basic discipline of medicine. It mainly studies the biological characteristics of pathogenic microorganisms related to medicine, the mechanism of infectious diseases, basic theories of immunology, diagnostic techniques, and specific prevention and control measures. The purpose of controlling and eliminating infectious diseases and microbial-related immune diseases, and protecting human health.

Having mastered the basic theory, basic knowledge and basic skills of medical microbiology, it can lay the foundation for learning related disciplines of basic medicine and clinical medicine, and help to control and eliminate infectious diseases.

Medical microbiology is a science summarized by humans in the long-term understanding of the pathogenic nature of infectious diseases and the process of disease control. Understanding the past, present, and future of medical microbiology will help us summarize the laws, find the correct research direction and prevention methods, and further develop medical microbiology.

Microorganism medicine

medical microbiology

A branch of microbiology. The broader medical microbiology includes veterinary microbiology. It studies the morphology and structure of human and livestock pathogenic microorganisms, nutritional metabolism, growth and reproduction, genetic variation, disinfection and sterilization, infection and pathogenicity of organisms, and immune mechanisms of organisms, as well as microbiological examination methods and specific control measures. Its purpose is to control and eliminate infectious diseases and other diseases related to microorganisms, protect human health and promote the development of animal husbandry. With the advancement of science, independent disciplines such as medical bacteriology, medical virology, medical mycology, and medical immunology have gradually formed in medical microbiology.

Most microorganisms are beneficial or harmless to humans, animals and plants, and only a few can cause human or animal and plant diseases. Such as typhoid fever, dysentery, measles, polio in humans; swine fever, chicken Newcastle disease, duck fever, etc. in livestock and poultry. Pathogenic microorganisms are called pathogenic microorganisms and are the main objects of medical microbiology research.

The development of medical microbiology can be roughly divided into the following three periods:

As early as the 1st century BC, Latin scholar Marcus Varro mentioned that microorganisms may be the cause of disease. In the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126), Liu Zhenren speculated that the lung disease was caused by roundworms. Italian physician G. Flacastro (1483 to 1553) believes that various epidemics are caused by different tiny objects that can multiply quickly. Austrian physician Prenzitz (1705-1786) believes that each infectious disease is caused by a unique living body. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty of China (1736 ~ 1795), Shi Daonan wrote in the "Dead Act of Heaven": "East Dead Rat, West Dead Rat, People See Dead Rats Like Tigers. People die like crickets. "It not only vividly describes the plague of plague, but also correctly points out the relationship between plague and rats.

Chinese Eastern Jin medical scientist Ge Hong (284 364) has already recorded the prevention and treatment of rabies in "Elbow Reserve Emergency Formula": "Kill the bite dog, pass it on to the brain, and never relapse." The Chinese have known for a long time Smallpox is a severe infectious disease and an immune phenomenon has been discovered. The poems of the son of Wang Dan of the Song Dynasty were both recorded in the Ming Dynasty's "Zhuquan" and the Qing Dynasty's "Pox Conclusiveness". During the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty (1567 ~ 1572), the vaccination method for human pox was improved and has been widely used, and later spread to Russia, Japan, North Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The invention of human pox vaccination is a great contribution of the Chinese to preventive medicine, and also the beginning of modern immunology.

During the experiment, Dutchman A.van Levenhoek first saw the microorganisms with a homemade microscope. French chemist and bacteriologist L. Pasteur used a warming method to prevent wine spoilage. Subsequently, British surgeon J. Lister (1827-1912) sprayed the operating room and boiling surgical instruments with carbolic acid to prevent post-operative infections. He laid the foundation for antiseptic, disinfection and aseptic operation. German bacteriologist R. Koch created bacterial staining, solid media, and experimental animal infections to provide favorable conditions for the discovery of pathogens of various infectious diseases. He discovered Bacillus anthracis (1877) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1882). ) And Vibrio cholerae (1883). Later, bacteriologists from various countries have successively discovered many human, livestock, and poultry pathogenic bacteria, such as diphtheria (E. Klebs, 1883; FAJ Lefler, 1884), pneumococcus (C. Frankel, 1886) , Meningococcus (A. Wexelbaum, 1887), Tetanus (Calibura Kitato, 1889), Yersinia (Caliburo Kitato, A .- & Eacute; .- J. Yersin, 1894) Wait. In 1884 Koch published the "Koch's Law" for identifying pathogenic bacteria: the same pathogenic bacteria can be found in the same special diseases; the pathogenic bacteria can be isolated from special diseases; inoculation of pure culture to susceptible animals Causes the same disease; Pure culture of pathogenic bacteria can be recovered from experimental animals. These principles still have certain guiding significance in determining a new pathogen.

In 1892, Russian scholars . Ivanovsky (1861 ~ 1920) found that the tobacco leaf juice with tobacco mosaic disease still remained infectious after being filtered by a bacterial filter, which was the beginning of understanding the virus. Since then it has been discovered that many diseases of humans, animals and plants are caused by viruses.

After the application of human vaccinia in China, the invention of vaccinia was an important milestone in immunology. In 1798, British physician E. Jenner (1749-1823) vaccinated against smallpox with vaccinia vaccination, laying the foundation for the prevention of infectious diseases by artificial immunity. In 1877, L. Pasteur invented the chicken cholera vaccine, and subsequently produced anthrax vaccine (1881) and rabies vaccine (1886). His research on attenuated vaccines laid the foundation for experimental immunology and opened up broad prospects for the development of vaccines.

In 1890, the German bacteriologist EAvon. Behring and the Japanese bacteriologist Satoburo Kitari discovered diphtheria antitoxin. In 1891, Belin used animal immune serum to cure a girl with diphtheria, the first case of passive immunotherapy. Since then, scientists have searched for bactericidal substances in serum and led to the development of serology. At the end of the 19th century, people began to understand the nature of the anti-infective immune phenomenon, and two different schools appeared, one was the famous zoologist . . Mechnikov (1845-1916) led the school of cytoimmunology, and one was the humoral immunology school led by the German chemist P. Erlich (1854-1915) (see Immunology). In 1907, Erlich synthesized arsenic vanamin (606) for the treatment of syphilis. In 1910, he co-synthesized new arsenic vanamin (911) with Qin Zuo Hachiro. This was the beginning of the period of chemotherapy for microbial diseases.

With the development of chemistry, physics, biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, molecular biology and electron microscope, immunofluorescence, immunoenzyme, isotope labeling, electronic computer, mass spectrometer, monoclonal antibody in recent decades With the application of new technologies, medical microbiology has developed rapidly. For example: Continuously discover and widely use various antibiotics; Study on the morphology of bacterial cells and viruses has reached the level of submicrostructure to further understand their laws of activity; The nature of bacterial endotoxin and exotoxin, Composition and mechanism of action; Significantly improved isolation and culture technology; Greatly increased the positive rate of Campylobacter or Bacillus isolates from patient specimens; Lassa fever, green monkey disease or Marburg virus disease, Severe infectious diseases, such as Ebola, which have a high mortality rate.

From 1967 to 1971, when American plant virologist TO Dina tried to isolate the virus of potato spindle tuber disease, he found that the causative factor was not a virus, but an RNA pathogen without protein with a molecular weight of about 100,000. He said this A small molecular weight pathogenic factor is a viroid. Although many types of virus-like viruses have only been found in higher plants so far, it is speculated that some diseases in humans and animals, such as CJ disease (CreutzfeldtJakob disease) and sheep scrapie, may be caused by virus-like viruses.

In 1957, Australian biologist FM Burnett proposed the famous "clonal selection theory", which made immunology into the new field of biomedicine and became one of the most important basic disciplines in biology and medicine. In 1971, the first World Conference on Immunology was held in the United States, and participants agreed that immunology should evolve from a branch of microbiology into an independent discipline (see Immunology).

In terms of preventive medicine, on October 26, 1979, the World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been eliminated worldwide, which was a great victory for anti-infectious immunity. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, smallpox and human plague have been quickly eliminated, and the incidence and mortality of diphtheria, measles, polio, tuberculosis, and neonatal tetanus have also fallen sharply. The variety, quantity and quality of biological products for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases have greatly developed. The attenuated vaccine against rinderpest was created in 1956, and the production of a live attenuated vaccine against measles was successful in 1959. Scientists such as Tang Feifan and others first isolated and cultured Chlamydia trachomatis. Research on traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine has been conducted throughout the country, and a variety of Chinese herbal medicines that can be used to prevent and cure certain infectious diseases have been discovered.