eukaryotic infections Flashcards
endoparasite
organism which lives within
ectoparasite
organism which lives on
metazoans
animal, helminths
protists
- Most unicellular, small
- Lack the level of tissue organisation present in higher eukaryotes
- Free living, symbiotic or parasitic
- Asexual
○ Binary fission
○ Spores and cysts - Sexual
Zygote
protoza
- Unicellular protists
- Most free-living, some are important human pathogens
- Pathogens - parasitic form that can cause disease in humans
○ Primary e.g. plasmodium
Opportunistic e.g. cryptosporidium
protozoal morphology
- Multiple life stages - reproduction, survival, host specificity
- Many have motility - cilia/flagella
- Vacuoles are common - maintain osmoregulation, food ingestion
Energy production through - mitochondria, chloroplasts, hydrogenosomes
EXCAVATA
- primitive protists
- Feeding grove, motile, binary fission
SAR
- Apicomplexa - diverse class with an apicoplast for host cell invasion
- Cytoskeletal structure
AMOEBOZOA
Move and feed with lobe-shaped pseudopods and no shell
Insect/tick vectors
Plasmodium - malaria
Ingestion of infective stages (food (tissue), water)
○ Toxoplasma gondii - toxoplasmosis
○ Giardia duodenalis - giardiasis
Entamoeba histolytica - amoebic dysentery
Venereal transmission
Trichomonas vaginalis
Malaria
- Specialised organelles for invasion and intracellular growth (e.g. liver hepatocytes and RBC’s)
- Mosquito - definitive host
○ Host where organism undergoes sexual reproduction - Human - intermediate host
○ Where the organism only reproduces asexually
○ One in liver
Multiple cycles in blood
- Mosquito - definitive host
malaria life cycle
- transmission to human
- sporozoites enter liver and infect hepatocytes
- mitotic replication - liver cell rupture and merozoites
- intraerythrocytic cycle
- sexual cycle
- transmission to mosquito
- gametocytes mate, undergo meiosis
- migrates though midgut wall, forms oocyst
- sporozoites develop
intraerythrocytic cycle
- merozoite enter cells
- forms ring
- trophozoite
- schizont
- rupture
- re-enters cycle or goes into sexual cycle
plasmodium falcarum sexual stage
merozoites produce gametocytes instead
acute vs chronic malaria
Acute - fever, anaemia (due to destruction of rbc’s)
Chronic - spleno- and hepatomegaly, respiratory distress
Pathogenesis of malaria
Infected RBC can bind and sequester in brain capillaries -> blockage to capillaries, ischemia, neural cell death
Toxoplasma
- Protozoan apicomplexan parasite
- One of the most common infections
- Zoonosis
○ Mammals, humans (intermediate host) - Primary host is wild and domestic cat
○ Parasite replicate in cat GI tract
Produce oocysts that spread in faeces
Life cycle of toxoplasma
- Food-borne
○ Ingestion of cysts in tissue of intermediate host (animal)
○ Unsporulated oocytes pass in faeces
○ Sporulated oocyte spread to human through contaminated food and water
○ Oocytes in feed spread to intermediate hosts
○ Ingested cysts in affected (raw) meat- Zoonotic
○ Ingestion of cat faeces
§ Cat litter tray, children’s sandpits - Maternal
Tachyzoites transmitted through placenta
- Zoonotic
Pathogenesis of toxoplasma
- Oocysts activated in gut
- Tachyzoites penetrate intestinal epithelium
- Invasion of multiple cell types
Tissue cysts form and become dormant
Immunocompromised or pregnant individuals
- Severe pathological consequences
- Immunocompromised
○ Severe toxoplasmosis involving organ damage
○ Reactivation of cyst - Pregnant
○ May lead to toxoplasmosis in foetus
○ Foetal abnormalities
○ Stillbirth - Healthy individuals - tolerated
Chronic infection of cysts
- Immunocompromised
Giardiasis
- Caused by giardia duodenalis
- Faecal/oral route
○ Drinking contaminated water - Symptoms
○ Asymptomatic (5%)
○ Prolonged diarrhoea
○ Dehydration
Greasy stool
- Faecal/oral route
Life cycle of giardiasis
- Hardy cysts survive in faeces
- Cysts ingested
- In SI, excystation -> 2 trophozoites divide asexually, attack to SI mucosa mess with absorption
Cysts to passed in faeces