Bacterial pathogens and disease 1 Flashcards
Define a pathogen
A micro-organism capable of causing disease
Define pathogenicity
The ability of an infectious agent to cause disease
Define virulence
The quantitative ability of an agent to cause disease
Define toxigenicity
The ability of a microorganism to produce a toxin that contributes to the development of disease
What are example of 4 virulence mechanisms?
- Adherence factors
- Biofilms
- Invasion of host cells and tissues
- Toxins-endotoxins and exotoxins
What are exotoxins and what are they secreted by?
• Are a heterogenous group of proteins produced and secreted by living bacterial cells
What type of bacteria are exotoxins produced by?
• Produced by both gram negative and gram positive bacteria
What do exotoxins cause?
• Cause disease symptoms in host during disease
What mechanisms do exotoxins cause other than there primary function?
○ Evade immune response
○ Enable biofilm formation
○ Enable attachment to host cells
○ Escape from phagosomoes
What are the 2 main exotoxins produced by staphylococcus aureus?
○Haemolytic toxins
○Phenol soluble modulins
What do haemolytic toxins cause?
§ Cause cells to lyse by forming pores in cell membrane
What do phenol soluble modulins aggregate?
§ -Aggregate the lipid bilayer of host cells causing lysis of membrane
What can exotoxins be encoded by?
○ Can be encoded by chromosomal genes shiga toxin in shigella dysenteriae, TcdA and TcdB in C.difficile
○ Extrachromosomal genes
What are the 3 types of exotoxins?
○ Type 1: Membrane acting toxins
○ Type 2:Membrane damaging toxins
○ Type 3:Intracellular toxins
What is the problem involved in the classification of exotoxins?
Many toxins have more than one type of activity
Where do type 1 membrane acting toxins act?
Act from outside the cell
What do type 1 membrane acting toxins interfere with?
○ They interfere with host signalling by inappropriate activation of host cell receptors
What target receptors are included of type 1 membranous acting toxins?
§ Guanylyl cyclase:
□ Leads to an increase in intracellular cGMP
§ Adenylyl cyclase
□ Leads to an increase in intracellular cAMP
§ Rho proteins
§ Ras proteins
Steps in the interaction of stable heat toxin and its receptor and its net effect
○ Stable heat toxin binds to specific binding receptor(GC-C) on the membrane which causes intracellular part of the membrane to produce cGMP
○ cGMP then geos on to:
§ Act on CTFR pump out cl- and HCO3-
§ Increase levels of cAMP which inhibits pumps out H+ in Na+
§ The net effects of this are that Cl-, HCO3- and Na+ all build up outside the cell and as NaCl is outside the cell, water follows and this leads to diarrhoea
What does type 2 membrane damaging toxin cause?
○ Causes damage to the host cell membrane
How many ways is damage to . host cell membrane done in by type 2 membrane damaging toxins?
- Insert channels in host cell membrane(Receptor mediated)
2. Enzymatical damage(Receptor dependent)
What is an example of receptor mediated damage by type 2 membrane damaging toxins?
Alpha toxins bind to receptor which causes polymerase to form defined pores which causes damage to membrane and cell content start to pour out, killing the cell