Chapter 15 Flashcards
Microbial Mechanisms of Pathogenecity
Portals of entry
- Mucous membrane
- Skin
- The parenteral route
Mucous membrane
Respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary tract, conjunctiva
Which is the easiest and most frequently traveled portal entry for infectious micro organisms
Respiratory tract
How do micro organisms gain access to the GI tract
Food water and via contaminated objects
How do pathogens access the genitourinary tract
They penetrate through unbroken mucous membrane or broken membranes as a result of sexual contact
If broken skin is impenetrable by most microorganisms then how do some microbes gain access to the body
They gain access through openings in the skin such as hair follicles and sweat gland ducts
What organisms can bore through the skin
Larvae of hookworms
What organisms can grow on the skin
Fungi can infect the keratin in skin or infect the skin itself
The parenteral route
Access gained to the body when microorganisms are deposited directly into the tissues beneath the skin and into mucous membrane when these barriers are penetrated or injured.
What are the different ways the skin and mucous membranes penetrated
Punctured, injections, bites cuts, wounds, surgery and splitting of the skin or mucous membrane due to swelling or drying
To micro organisms caused disease after they have entered the body
No, not necessarily. A pathogen has a preferred portal of entry that it must go through before it is able to cause disease.
What is ID50
The virulence of a microbe expressed like this means infectious dose for 50% of a sample population
In other words the # of microorganisms required to infect 50% of the population
What is LD50
The potency of a toxin is expressed as this meaning the lethal dose for 50% of a sample population
In other words, the # of microorganisms required to kill 50% of the population
Adherence (in pathogenic microbes)
A means of pathigens attaching themselves to host tissues at their portal of entry
How do pathogens attach to a host
This is accomplished by means of surface molecules on the pathogen called adhesind or ligands that bind specifically to complimentary surface receptors on the cells of certain host’s tissues.
Where are microbe adhesins located
On the glycocalyx, pili, fimbriae, or flagella
Biofilms
Communities of microbes that mass together and cling to surfaces with their extra cellular products that can attach to living and non living surfaces, and share available nutrients
What are factors that contribute to the ability of bacteria to invade a host
Bacterial capsules, Specific cell wall components, Extracellular enzymes, Antigenic variation, Production of proteins called invasins
Capsules
Made up of glycocalyx material that forms capsules around the cell walls. This increases the virulence of the species and resists the host offenses by impairing phagocytosis.
Can a host cell produce antibodies against a bacterial capsule
Yes, the human body can produce antibodies against the capsule and when these antibodies are present on the capsule surface, the encapsulated bacteria are easily destroyed by phagocytosis.
What are cell wall components that contribute to bacterial virulence
M protein, fimbriae, Opa, and waxy outer wall lipid layer
M protein
Heat resistant and acid resistant protein found on both the cell surface and fimbriae of certain bacteria. It mediate attachment of the bacterium to epithelial cells of the host and helps the bacterium resist phagocytosis by white blood cells.
What bacteria carry the M protein
Streptococcus pyogenes
Opa
An outer membrane protein that attaches to host cells, with Opa and fimbriae attached to host cell, the host cell takes in the bacteria
Waxy lipid
Mycolic acid that makes up the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also increases virulence by resisting digestion by phagocytes and can even multiply inside phagocytes
Coagulases
A bacterial enzyme that coagulate the fibrinogen in blood forming a blood clot. The clot may protect the bacterium from phagocytosis and isolate it from other defenses of the host
Bacterial kinases
Bacterial enzyme that breaks down fibrin and thus digest clots formed by the body to isolate the infection
How is bacterial kinase used in a medical setting
To break down clots in a coronary artery bl♡ckage
Hyaluronidase
Enzyme secreted by certain bacteria such as streptococci. It hydrolyzes hyaluronic acid, a type of polysaccharide that holds together certain cells of the body, particularly cells in connective tissue.
What are some of the effects of hyaluronidase
The digesting action is thought to be involved in the tissue blackening of infected wounds and to help the microorganism spread from its initial site of infection it can also produce gas gangrene in some with certain bacteria.
Collagenase
An enzyme produced by several species of Clostridium. It facilitates the spread of gas gangrene and breaks down the protein collagen which forms the connective tissue of muscles and other body organs and tissues.
As a defense against adherence of pathogens to mucosal surfaces, what class of antibodies does the body produce
IgA antibodies
What do some pathogens produce that destroy IgA antibodies
IgA proteases
Antigenic variation
The ability for some pathogens to alter their surface antigens and thus preventing an immune response against the pathogen that is unaffected by the antibodies the host produces.
How does activating alternative genes help with antigenic variation
They result in antigenic changes, such as N. gonorrhea has several copies of Opa-encoding gene, resulting in cells with different antigens and in cells that express different antigens over time.
What is adaptive immunity
A specific defense response of the body to an infection or to antigens. The body produces antibodies which bind to the antigens and inactivate or destroy them.
What component of the cytoskeleton of a eukaryotic cell does a bacterial cell hija6for its own purpose
The protein actin which is used by some microbes to penetrate host cells and by others to move through and between host cells.
What protein do microbes use to rearrange nearby actin filaments of the cytoskeleton
Invasins
How do invasins penetration the host cell
Invasins of a microbe cause the appearance of the host cell plasma membrane to resemble the splash of a drop of a liquid hitting a solid surface, disrupting the cytoskeleton, sinking in and becoming engulfed by the host cell
Membrane ruffling
The effect caused by the Invasin hitting the plasma membrane
How is actin used to penetrate the host cell
Actin is used to propel themselves through the host cell cytoplasm and from one host cell l to another