Differential Protein Profiling of Pathogenic and Non Pathogenic Escherichia Coli

Abstract

In India, diarrhea is third most leading cause of deaths in children under five years of age. A variety of pathogens including bacteria, viruses and protozoan are responsible for the cause of diarrhea. Higher morbidity and mortality rates associated with diarrhea may be attributed to the insufficient diagnostic techniques and improper management of diarrhea symptoms. Commensal strains of E. coli constitute essential component of human gastrointestinal tract, however pathogenic ones cause debilitating infection in the host. E. coli strains causing gastrointestinal infection are categorized as diarrhoeagenic E. coli and are classified into six various pathotypes. Each of these pathotype expresses different genomic elements to demonstrate unique mechanism of pathogenicity. The most widely used characterization method is polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting unique virulence genes. But the high cost, sophisticated procedure and requirement of pre training make limited use this method in diagnosing diarrhoeagenic E. coli.