Effect of Biofield Treatment on Phenotypic and Genotypic Characteristic of Provindencia rettgeri

What is it about?

Providencia rettgeri (P. rettgeri) is a clinically significant Gram-negative bacterium of genus Providencia, and commonly associated with hospital-acquired infection like urinary tract infection (UTI), gastroenteritis, and ocular infections. Present study was designed to evaluate the effect of biofield treatment on P. rettgeri against antimicrobial susceptibility, biochemical reaction pattern, biotype number, and 16S rDNA sequence. The samples of P. rettgeri (ATCC 9250) were divided into three groups: Gr.I (control), Gr.II (treatment, revived), and Gr.III (treatment, lyophilized). The Gr.II and III were treated with Mr. Trivedi’s biofield, and then subsequently characterized for antimicrobial susceptibility, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), biochemical reactions, and biotype numbering. The 16S rDNA sequencing was carried out to correlate the phylogenetic relationship of P. rettgeri with other bacterial species. The treated cells of P. rettgeri showed an alteration in susceptibility of about 50% and 53.3% tested antimicrobials of Gr.II on day 5 and 10, respectively; and 53.3% of tested antimicrobials of Gr.III on day 10. MIC results showed a significant decrease in MIC values of 53.1, 56.3, and 56.3% antimicrobials in Gr.II on day 5, Gr.II on day 10, and Gr.III on day 10, respectively, as compared to control. The significant changes in biochemical reactions and biotype numbers were also observed in all the treated groups of P. rettgeri. Based on nucleotides homology and phylogenetic analysis the P. rettgeri was found to be Proteus mirabilis (GenBank Accession Number: AY820623) and nearest homolog species was found to be Proteus vulgaris (Accession No. DQ499636). These findings suggest that biofield treatment can prevent the emergence of absolute resistance of existing antimicrobials to P. rettgeri.

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Why is it important?

Presently, several microbes have been acquired the resistance to number of antimicrobial agents that were successfully treat the microbial infections earlier. The antimicrobial resistant microbes whether bacteria, fungi, viruses or parasites can survive in regular antimicrobial drugs therapy. The frequent and improper use and misuse of antimicrobial drugs accelerate the emergence of drug-resistant microbes, which were further spread by poor sanitary conditions and meager infection control [1]. Antimicrobial drugs prescribed in nearly all Providencia infections caused by five species: Providencia rettgeri, P. alcalifaciens, P. rustigianii, P. stuartii, and P. heimbachae. The P. rettgeri is a clinically significant, urease-producing, Gram-negative Bacillus and usually found in both water and land atmospheres. It is generally associated with opportunistic infections in humans such as traveler’s diarrhea, urinary tract infections (UTI), skin infection, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, and endophthalmitis. The occurrence of P. rettgeri infection is common throughout the world with 6–33% of mortality rate, which is even greater in polymicrobial infection [2,3]. Recently, P. rettgeri has acquired antimicrobial resistance due to producing β-lactamase enzymes [4,5]. Therefore, due to the clinical significance of P. rettgeri, development of effective antimicrobial therapy is very needful for human health. As such, no medication is available to cure the resistant strain of microbe but an alternative approach known as biofield treatment is recently reported to alter the antimicrobial sensitivity in different microorganism [6]. The law of mass-energy inter-conversion is existed in the literature for more than 300 years, and the thought was initially reported by Hasenohrl followed by Einstein [7,8]. However, the conversion of mass into energy is well established, but its inversion i.e., energy into mass has not yet proven scientifically. Furthermore, the energy can exists in several forms such as kinetic, potential, electrical, magnetic, and nuclear. Similarly, the human nervous system consists the energy in the form of electrical signals [9,10]. Thus, human has the ability to harness the energy from environment or universe and can transmit into any leaving or nonliving object(s) around the Globe. The objects always receive the energy and responding into useful way that is called biofield energy and the process is known as biofield treatment. Whenever these electrical signals fluctuate with time, the magnetic field generates as per the Ampere-Maxwell law, and cumulatively known as electromagnetic field. Hence, the electromagnetic field being generated from the human body is known as biofield [11]. Mr. Mahendra Trivedi’s biofield treatment has shown to transform the characteristics non-living and living things in several fields such as material science [12–17], agriculture [18–20], and biotechnology [21,22]. The biofield treatment has considerably altered the sensitivity of antimicrobials to some microbes [6,23,24]. By conceiving the challenges of antimicrobial resistance in P. rettgeri, and advantages of biofield treatment; this work was undertaken to evaluate the effects of biofield treatment on antimicrobials sensitivity, biotype number based on various biochemical reactions, and 16S rDNA gene sequencing of P. rettgeri.

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