Bacterial Toxins Flashcards
Saprophytes
- Organism that is not associated with disease
- Free living bacteria
- Most bacteria - Bacillus spp.
Commensals
- Organims that live in association with a host
- Relationship benefits both organisms
- Most bacteria that live within a host - Staphylococcus
Opportunistic pathogens
- Organism that causes disease in a compromised host: immune, physical, or chemical - Pseudomonas Staphylococcus
Pathogen
Organism that is capable of causing disease in a “normal host” - Bacillus antracis, Corynebacterium diptheriae
Virulence
Degree of pathogenicity
4 final outcomes of bacterial infection
- Death
- Recurrent illnesses
- Recovery and cure
- Asymptomatic Infection
* As number of bacteria increase, likelihood of death increases
Properties of a successful pathogen (4)
- Gain access into the host
- Colonize host tissue
- Resist host defense mechanism
- Damage host
Two mechanisms of pathogenesis
- Invasiveness
- Toxigenicity
Pathology due to the invasive properties of a bacterium
Microbe enters, colonizes, and grows in the host; damage is due to the growth of bacterium in the host
Pathology due to toxins produced by the bacterium
- Microbe enters, colonizes, and grows in the host, typically at a specific site in the host (non-invasive)
- Bacteria produce proteins that damage at sites distanced to site of infection
Toxoid
A substance that has been treated to destroy its toxic properties but retains the capacity to stimulate production of antibodies, used in immunization
General properties of bacterial exotoxins (7)
- Produced by both gram positive and gram negative bacteria
- Heat labile
- Immunogenic → anti-toxin antibodies can neutralize toxin
- Immunogenic → converted to a toxoid by chemical treatment to generate a vaccine
- Mode of action does not include fever in host
- Toxic at microgram amounts
- Often responsible for entire pathology of pathogen
Four classes of bacterial toxins
- Surface-acting toxins - bind to receptor
- Pore-forming toxins - form channel to release nutrients from host cell
- A/B toxins - A component is enzymatic; B component is for binding
- Type III and IV secretion - paralyze host cell to prevent phaogocytosis of the pathogen
Toxins are ______ that are enzymes that modify specific host __________
Proteins; macromolecules
Modifications from Diptheria toxin and Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A:
ADP-ribosylate EF2: inhibits protein synthesis