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Evalutation of the Impact of Platinum Group Elements on Opportunistic Pathogens

Graduate #59
Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Microbiology/Immunology/Virology

Shari Galvin - Texas Southern University


Previously, our group determined that exposure to indoor and outdoor dust impacted a number of opportunistic bacterial pathogens, mainly: Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis (which are both gut flora) and Psuedomonas aeruginosa (found in gut and can cause pneumonic infection). While house dust enhanced bacterial growth in certain medium, both indoor and outdoor dust enhanced biofilm production of all three bacterial species, which could potentially alter their virulence potential. Dust, considered to be an environmental contaminant, becomes toxic when present in excess amounts. Toxicity is attributed to composition of the dust contaminants. Platinum Group Elements (platinum, palladium and rhodium) are components of road dust that have raised serious concerns regarding their physiological impact on living organisms. It was demonstrated by analysis of growth, oxidative stress sensitivity, and biofilm production assays that dust containing PGEs are microbial stress agents. In the environment, some PGEs form various soluble salt complexes (like platinum chloride, palladium chloride, rhodium chloride and other complexes of these chlorides) while some remain in airborne particulate matter (PM). PGEs, concentrated in road dust, can be carried indoors by mechanisms like wind . Soluble PGE salt together with airborne particulate PGEs can be ingested through tainted water and/ or food.In furthering our previous studies, we sought to analyze the impact of PGE salts on the proliferation and virulence potential of E. coli, E. faecalis and P. aeruginosa in both pure and HT29 co-cultures.

Not Submitted

Funder Acknowledgement(s): This project was directly supported by the National Science Foundation Research Infrastructure in Science and Engineering (HRD 1345173).

Faculty Advisor: Jason A. Rosenzweig, rosenzweigja@tsu.edu

Role: I completed all parts of this research

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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