Acid-Fast Bacilli and Filamentous Bacteria Flashcards
What are Koch’s Postulates?
- The microorganism must be present in all cases of the disease
- The pathogen can be isolated and grown in pure culture
- The pathogen can be inoculated into a healthy, susceptible host and cause disease
- The pathogen can be reisolated from the new host and shown to be the same as the original inoculated pathogen
What is unique about the growth of mycobacteria and filamentous bacteria?
They are extremely slow growing and resemble fungi on plates
What is the oxygen dependence of mycobacterium?
They are aerobic
What is the generation time for mycobacterium?
Over 24 hours (extremely slow growing)
E. coli generates in 20 minutes
Do mycobacterium more closely resemble gram positive or gram negative bacteria?
Gram positive because they lack LPS (however, they do NOT gram stain)
What is the waxy coat of mycobacterium made of?
Mycolic acid
What are the layers of the mycobacterial cell wall?
- cell membrane
- peptidoglycan
- arabinogalactan
- mycolic acid
- superficial lipids (cord factor)
- stretching from cell membrane to cell surface = LAM
What is LAM?
Lipoarabinomannan which is a glycolipid found in numerous subspecies of mycobacteria.
It is a virulence factor that modulates macrophage function and scavenges oxygen radicals
What is the major virulence factor of mycobacteria and how does it work?
LAM modulates macrophage function and scavenges oxygen radicals
What makes mycobacteria waxy, and difficult to stain via gram stain?
Mycolic acids which are very long chain fatty acids. They are in mycobacteria, nocardia and corynebacteria
What three bacterial species have mycolic acids?
Mycobacteria
Corynebacteria
Nocardia
What is Wax D?
it is mycolic acid, peptidoglycan and arabinogalactan (the layers of the mycobacterial cell wall below the superficial lipids)
What pathogenesis is associated with Wax D?
- granuloma formation
2. caseous necrosis
What is Freund’s adjuvant?
It is mineral oil and killed Mycobacteria bovis which can be used as an immunopotentiator (booster)
Killed M bovis serves as an antigen to stimulate and immune response and make Ab
What is trehalose dimycolate?
Cord factor associated with mycobacteria.
It forms serpentine cords in culture and is toxic to PMN, damages mitochondria and causes granuloma formation
What is cord factor?
Trehalose dimycolate of mycobacteria
What three pathogenic responses are associated with cord factor?
- granuloma formation
- PMN toxicity
- Damaged mitochondria
Acid fastness is a property of what two bacteria?
Mycobacteria and nocardia
Describe the process of acid-fast staining.,
- boiling carbol fuschin (red basic dye)
- acid wash with alcohol and hydrochloric acid
- Methylene blue counter stain
What is the original stain used in acid-fast staining? Why must it be boiling?
Boiling carbol fuschin (basic red dye) is used. It must be boiling to penetrate the waxy layer
How many species of mycobacterium tuberculosis exist? Which causes most disease in humans?
- M. tuberculosis
- M. bovis (disease with ingestion of raw dairy, BCG vaccine)
- M. africanum
- M. canetti
- M. microti
Which mycobacteria tuberculosis species is the basis for the BCG vaccine against TB?
How else is this bacteria acquired?
M. bovis
It can also be acquired by ingesting raw dairy
What percent of the world’s population is a reservoir for M. tuberculosis?
1/3
How does transmission of M. tuberculosis occur?
person-to-person (inhalation, ingestion), although they can survive on inanimate objects that are out of direct light
Inhalation- 1 to 5 micron droplets that go to alveoli
Ingestion- raw dairy from infected cattle
When M. tuberculosis is in a host, what happens?
- it gets ingested by macrophages and inhibits phagolysosomal fusion so it is not killed by inactivated macrophages
- Drain to hilar and mediastinal nodes and multiply locally
- bacteremic spread to other organs
Why is M. tuberculosis not killed when it is ingested by macrophages?
It prevents the fusion of the phagolysosome so it is able to survive in the inactivated macrophage
What two factors does control of initial M. tuberculosis infection depend on?
- inoculum size (number of organisms)
2. Resistance of the host (IL-12, IFNg, TNF, immunosuppression HIV, malnutrition)
Resistance of the host to M. tuberculosis can be affected by genetics or acquired factors. What three genetic factors play the largest role in resistance?
IL-12. IFNg, TNF
What are the two types of TB lesions?
- Exudative- acute, edema, PMN, macrophages
- Granulomatous- later, central zone with giant cells, midzone epithelioid cells, outer fibroblasts, monocytes, lymphocytes
What are the three zones of granulomatous TB lesions?
central zone- giant cells
midzone- epithelioid cells
Outer zone - fibroblasts, monocytes, lymphocytes
What are the three phases of TB disease?
- Primary disease
- Progressive primary disease (or Latent)
- Reactivation disease
Describe primary disease of TB.
Most are asymptomatic or have mild respiratory infection that may present as pneumonia