Host-Parasite Interactions Flashcards
Principal Pathogen
- Regularly causes disease in a proportion of susceptible hosts who have normal specific and non-specific defense mechanisms
- Ex: Streptococcus Pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis
Commensal Organism
- Lives within or on the surface of the host, almost never perturbing homeostasis
- Ex: Diphtheroids, Lactobacilli
Opportunistic Pathogen
- Rarely causes disease except in hosts who have defects in specific or non-specific defense mechanisms
- Ex: Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Staphylcoccus Epidermidis
Virulence
- A measure of the tendency of an organism to cause disease
- LD50 - dose of microorganism that will kill 50% of a susceptible population
Koch’s Postulates
1) the organism must be found in all cases of disease but generally not in healthy animals.
2) the organism must be isolated from diseased animals and grown in pure culture
3) the disease must be reproduced when the isolated organism is inoculated into susceptible animals
4) the organism must be isolated in pure culture from the experimentally infected animals
Kock’s Postulate (Molecular)
1) the gene(s) encoding the phenotype should be associated with pathogenic strains
2) inactivation of the gene(s) results in a reduction in virulence
3) restoration of the gene(s) into the avirulent mutant re-establishes virulence
Goal of all organisms
- Proliferation
- in the case of infectious agents, this requires both multiplication within a host and transmission to another host
Outcomes of Infection
- asymptomatic (most common)
- disease (reflects details of survival strategy by microbe)
- Death (unfavorable for both host and microbe)
Microbial Factors in Emergence of New Infections
- Short generation time
- Mutations
- Acquisition of new genetic elements
- Changes in vector distribution
Host Factors in Emergence of New Infections
- Changes in behavior
- Expanding populations
- Increased travel
- Contamination of environment
- Food and Water distribution
- Immunosuppression
Infectious Cycle
- Entry
- Establishment
- Persistence
- Damage
- Exit
Entry
- Entry sites
- Overcoming barriers both anatomical/functional and ecological
Anatomical Barriers to Microbe Entry
- Skin (thick, dry, acidic, constant shedding)
- Mucosa (mucin, motility, sIgA)
- Respiratory tract (hair, mucocilia, lysozyme, cough/sneezing)
- Alimentary Tract (saliva, acidic pH, digestive enzymes, sIgA, shedding)
- GU Tract (urine flow, pH)
Ecological Barriers to Entry
- Vast Microbiome
- Density of surface area
Salmonella infection through inflammation
- inflammation induced by Salmonella converts S2O3 into S4O6 via NO/ROS from PMNs
- confers a selective advantage to increase colonization within the gut out competing the microbiome