Abstract

The purpose of this project was to discover how the different types of medicines affected the growth of E. coli bacteria and whether these results were applicable to different species in the gut microbiome. The effect of the type of medicine on the stress of E. coli was determined by a scale of 0-3, 0 being the no growth and 3 being 100% growth. Amlodipine and 0.6% nicotine had level 0 growth in the petri dishes. Metformin and Tylenol had growth equivalent to level 2 culture. These medications may potentially aid in amyloid formation. Losartan and Ibuprofen had level 3 growth with heavily stressed bacteria. Losartan also showed stressed E. coli but the Ibuprofen colonies were twice as long as those of the losartan. This might mean that with the same dose, ibuprofen might have more drastic effects than Losartan. 0.3% nicotine had a level 1 growth pattern, but had heavily stressed bacteria. This may also contribute to amyloid formation in the brain. The control had lots of growth, but no stressed bacteria, so it was given a rating of level 3. The BLAST alignment of the csgB and agfB showed 91% similarity (fig. 7), meaning that these medicines may have the same effect on Salmonella bacteria, and possibly other gut microbiome species.