Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight
With the advancement in reusable rocket propulsion technology, space tourist trips into outer space are now becoming a possibility at a cost-effective rate. As such, astronauts will face a host of health-related challenges, particularly on long-duration space missions where maintaining a balanced he...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-02-01
|
| Series: | Life |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/656 |
| _version_ | 1797610650616201216 |
|---|---|
| author | Hakim Ullah Wazir Pooja Narang Giulia Silvani Christine Mehner Kate Poole Catherine Burke Joshua Chou |
| author_facet | Hakim Ullah Wazir Pooja Narang Giulia Silvani Christine Mehner Kate Poole Catherine Burke Joshua Chou |
| author_sort | Hakim Ullah Wazir |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the advancement in reusable rocket propulsion technology, space tourist trips into outer space are now becoming a possibility at a cost-effective rate. As such, astronauts will face a host of health-related challenges, particularly on long-duration space missions where maintaining a balanced healthy microbiome is going to be vital for human survival in space exploration as well as mission success. The human microbiome involves a whole list of micro-organisms that reside in and on the human host, and plays an integral role in keeping the human host healthy. However, imbalances in the microbiome have been directly linked to many human diseases. Research findings have clearly shown that the outer space environment can directly affect the normal microbiome of astronauts when the astronaut is exposed to the microgravity environment. In this study, we show that the simulation of microgravity on earth can mimic the outer space microgravity environment. <i>Staphylococus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) was chosen for this study as it is an opportunistic pathogen, which is part of the normal human skin microflora and the nasal passages. This study’s results show that <i>S. aureus</i> proliferation was significantly increased under a microgravity environment compared to Earth’s gravity conditions, which complements previous work performed on bacteria in the outer space environment in the International Space Station (ISS). This demonstrates that this technology can be utilised here on Earth to mimic the outer space environment and to study challenging health-related questions. This in return saves us the cost on conducting experiments in the ISS and can help advance knowledge at a faster rate and produce countermeasures to mitigate the negative side effects of the hostile outer space environment on humans. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:17:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-62f12751584c4468a9177d782fdabb93 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-1729 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:17:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Life |
| spelling | doaj.art-62f12751584c4468a9177d782fdabb932023-11-17T12:10:33ZengMDPI AGLife2075-17292023-02-0113365610.3390/life13030656Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human SpaceflightHakim Ullah Wazir0Pooja Narang1Giulia Silvani2Christine Mehner3Kate Poole4Catherine Burke5Joshua Chou6School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, AustraliaSchool of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, AustraliaSchool of Material Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaDepartment of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USAEMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science, Faculty of Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaSchool of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, AustraliaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, AustraliaWith the advancement in reusable rocket propulsion technology, space tourist trips into outer space are now becoming a possibility at a cost-effective rate. As such, astronauts will face a host of health-related challenges, particularly on long-duration space missions where maintaining a balanced healthy microbiome is going to be vital for human survival in space exploration as well as mission success. The human microbiome involves a whole list of micro-organisms that reside in and on the human host, and plays an integral role in keeping the human host healthy. However, imbalances in the microbiome have been directly linked to many human diseases. Research findings have clearly shown that the outer space environment can directly affect the normal microbiome of astronauts when the astronaut is exposed to the microgravity environment. In this study, we show that the simulation of microgravity on earth can mimic the outer space microgravity environment. <i>Staphylococus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) was chosen for this study as it is an opportunistic pathogen, which is part of the normal human skin microflora and the nasal passages. This study’s results show that <i>S. aureus</i> proliferation was significantly increased under a microgravity environment compared to Earth’s gravity conditions, which complements previous work performed on bacteria in the outer space environment in the International Space Station (ISS). This demonstrates that this technology can be utilised here on Earth to mimic the outer space environment and to study challenging health-related questions. This in return saves us the cost on conducting experiments in the ISS and can help advance knowledge at a faster rate and produce countermeasures to mitigate the negative side effects of the hostile outer space environment on humans.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/656microgravity<i>S. aureus</i>bacteriamicrobiomespacegentamicin |
| spellingShingle | Hakim Ullah Wazir Pooja Narang Giulia Silvani Christine Mehner Kate Poole Catherine Burke Joshua Chou Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight Life microgravity <i>S. aureus</i> bacteria microbiome space gentamicin |
| title | Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight |
| title_full | Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight |
| title_fullStr | Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight |
| title_short | Bacterial Virulence and Prevention for Human Spaceflight |
| title_sort | bacterial virulence and prevention for human spaceflight |
| topic | microgravity <i>S. aureus</i> bacteria microbiome space gentamicin |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/656 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hakimullahwazir bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT poojanarang bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT giuliasilvani bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT christinemehner bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT katepoole bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT catherineburke bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight AT joshuachou bacterialvirulenceandpreventionforhumanspaceflight |