Lecture 8: Y. PESTIS Flashcards
What is Y. Pestis?
Class A infectious agent with potential for use as a biowarfare or bioterrorism agent
Facultative anaerobe Gram-negative bacillus
uses intracellular type II secretion
What is a plague?
a reemerging disease; reappearance of outbreaks in various countries after decades of quiescence
What are the means of infection of Y. Pestis?
- Y. pestis
- Y. enterocolitica - causes watery diarrhea
- Y. pseudotuberculosis - Disease in animals
What is the path of infection of Y. Pestis?
After ingestion, the bacteria invade the intestinal epithelium by invasion of M cells.
- released at the basal surface.
- penetrate into the underlying lymphoid tissue, where they multiply both inside and outside host cells.
What are the main routes of transmission of Y. Pestis?
- Flea bite
- Direct animal contact
- Contact with tissues, body fluids
- Scratches, bites - Aerosol
What is the mechanism of transmission of Flea bite?
- Organisms ingested during a blood meal from the bacteremic host (e.g., infected rat)
- Bacteria multiply causing blockage of proventriculus (throat parts of flea)
- Flea regurgitates infectious material into new host during subsequent attempts at blood meal
- Flea remains hungry & feeds more aggressively
What is the forest cycle of transmission?
−Y. pestis is maintained in the environment by spread of the organism among rodents
−There is low risk of transmission to humans
What is the urban cycle of transmission?
−The rodent is domestic
−Plague spreads rapidly among susceptible rodents, causing them to die off rapidly
− Their fleas search for new hosts, increasing risk of spread of infection to humans.
What are the 3 major forms of plaque?
- Pneumonic: Inhalation (primary)
- Mortality 57% (>90% if treatment delayed)
- Most likely route for bioterrorism - Bubonic: Flea bite or animal handling
- Mortality <5% (40-60% untreated) - Septicemic - Sepsis
- Mortality 30-50% (>90% untreated)
What are the symptoms of the pneumonic plague.?
Coughing (often coughing blood)
First signs of illness are fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough
May cause respiratory failure and shock
What are symptoms of the bubonic plague?
- A usual incubation period of 2–6 days
- Constitutional symptoms (i.e, can affect many different systems of the body and are generally unspecific; can cause them to manifest:
chills; fever; headache; weakness) - Swelling of lymph nodes, called a “bubo”
What are the clinical test used to diagnose Y. Pestis?
- An anti-F1 antibody test of serum can differentiate between different species of Yersinia
- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used to identify Y. pestis.
- Plague diagnostic phages φA1122 and L-413C
What are the 3 plasmids of Y. pestis?
- pYV (pCD1): calcium dependence
- pPla (pPCP1): pesticin, coagulase, plasminogen activator
- pFra (pMT1): murine toxin
Describe the plague vaccine formalin-killed U.S.P.
The killed vaccine did not protect against respiratory exposures, and required multiple doses over time. Also, it could cause severe inflammation
What vaccines for Y. pestis is promising?
At present, recombinant subunit vaccine that expresses both F1 and V antigens of Y. pestis shows promise
What are the treatments for Y. Pestis?
- Supportive care
- Antibiotics
- Aminoglycosides
- Doxycycline, tetracycline, chloramphenicol
What antibiotics are not effective treatments?
-Penicillins and cephalosporins are NOT effective