Small Molecules Originating from Microbes

The article, ‘Small Molecules originating from Microbes (SMOM) and their Role in Microbes-Host Relationship,’ attempts to offer a critical analysis of the interrelationship between the various life-threatening infections affecting mankind and the highly toxic substances produced by pathogenic bacteria. The basic assumption has been that it is the specific pathogenic microbes that cause various life-threatening conditions such as plague, tetanus, sepsis, and cholera, among others. The current research, however, have demonstrated that infectious conditions such as sepsis are caused by the conflict arising from insufficient immune reactions to the pathological bacteria’s own opportunistic microflora rather than the bacteria itself. As such, the study’s main objective is to “detect simple by chemical structure non-protein molecules originating from microbes with molecular weight of up to 500…in human blood under different health conditions” (Beloborodova & Osipov, 2000, p. 14), in an attempt to link the toxic molecules excreted by the microbes to a variety of health conditions, including peritonitis, sepsis, and urinary tract infections.