Micro - Things IDK yet... Flashcards
What is the red complex, and what bacteria does it include?
- related strikingly to clinical measures of periodontal disease
- particularly pocket depth & BOP
- includes Poryphormonas gingivalis, Tannarella forsythia, Treponema denticola.
What is the orange complex, and what bacteria does it include?
- also related to pocket depth
- this relationship & the relationship to other clinical parameters is less striking than the red complex
- includes P. intermedia, C. rectus, C. showae, E. nodatum, F. nucelatum, P. micros, P. nigrescens
- need orange complex for red complex to come in and flourish
What is a common trait of Red complex? And what does it do?
the expression of trypsin-like proteases; Trypsin-like proteases interact w/ host cell protease-activated receptor PAR-2
Pg gingipains have been shown to stimulate the secretion of cytokines via activation of…?
PAR-2
What pathogens share the ability to penetrate the gingival epithelium (invasive)? And why?
Aa, Pg, Tf, Td; due to their ability to produce toxic proteases (ex. endotoxins)
What bacteria are useful indicators of progressive periodontitis (in aggressive & chronic disease)?
Aa, Pg, Pi, Td, Tf
- one or more of these species occur in 99% of progressive lesions
- collectively, these species avoid/compromise host defenses and induce tissue dmg
what is one of the first stages of initiation of gingivitis?
bacterial exotoxins (i.e. Hyaluronidase) destroying intercellular connections betw epithelial cells lining the gingival sulcus.
Pg is commonly found in large numbers in gingivitis patients. Why is this?
WRONG! FALSE! NOOOOO! Pg is RARELY found in gingivitis patients and also remember, it is ABSENT from edentulous.
Gingipains are what and do what?
Gingipains are trypsin-like /cysteine proteases that degrade collagen, fibrinogen, fibronectin, complement components C3 & C5a, IgG & IgA.
*also have 2 arginine-specific and 1 lysine-specific
What does Arg-gingipain do?
It agglutinates and lyses the erythrocytes providing heme-a growth factor for Pg
What does gingipain cleave and what is the resulting consequence?
Gingipains cleave monocyte CD14, contributing to hyporesponsiveness to LPS and other bacterial triggers of mac activation.
______ and ______ promote adherence to host cells, contributing to the invasive capacity of Pg.
Pg fimbriae & Arg-gingipain
How does Pg persist in the plaque biofilm on tooth surfaces?
It attaches to Streptococcus gordonii via the major fimbrial subunit protein (FimA)
What is special about Pg’s LPS?
It has hemin-dependent alteration in its structure of Lipid A that may reduce the host’s ability to mount an innate immune response.
How is Aa invasive?
- enter epithelial cells
- escape phagocytic vacuoles
- multiplies in cytoplasm
- spread to adjacent epithelial cells via protrusions
How does Aa affect PMNs and mac’s?
It produces a leukotoxin that can destroy PMNs and mac’s by forming cation-selective pores that lead to the osmotic lysis of these cells.
What are the major Td virulence determinants?
- Dentilisin
- Major outer sheath protein (Msp)
- Sip protein
What is dentilisin?
a major Td virulence determinant that is a serine protease that degrades matrix prot & host cell junctional prot
- also activates host MMPs to degrade matrix
What is the Major outer sheath protein (Msp)?
a major Td virulence determinant that is a porin, causing membrane depolarization in some cells–cytotoxic to others
- alters fibroblast cytoskeleton reorganization, diminishing the cell migration, which prolongs tissue remodeling and wound healing
What is the Sip protein?
a major Td virulence determinant that induces arrest of T-cells in G1 and subsequent apoptosis, suppressing T-lymphocyte proliferation in response to mitogens (substances that induce mitosis)
In order for Td to be present, what else must be present?
Pg! They coaggregate not only w/ F. nucleatum but also with each other.
What is a major virulence determinant for Tannarella forsythia (Tf)?
BspA protein = binds to fibronectin & fibrinogen and stimulates neutrophil recruitment, inflammation, and bone resorption.
What type of patients would you find Prevotella intermedia (Pi)?
gingivitis, healthy, and edentulous patients
Pi expresses proteases and resists killing by phagocytes, but it lacks what…?
antiphagocytic capsule & collagenase production
Pi often dominates the subgingival flora in what type of gingivitis?
NUG = necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis
Predisposition to more severe chronic periodontitis occurs with…?
certain genetic polymorphisms (i.e. IL-1 genes)
What opportunistic pathogens/bacteria can infect a patient with a suppressed immune response due to periodontal disease?
cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and herpesvirus co-infections
Peripheral blood monocytes from PD pts release 2-3x more …?
IL-1B (osteoclast activating factor)–this increase due to monocytes stimulated by LPS
What is wrong with treating oral infections w/ systemic antimicrobial agents? And why?
It risks side effects and gives varied results.
- Bc it is difficult to maintain adequate drug levels for a sufficient time at site of action
- Also bc of reduced susceptibility of bact in biofilm compared to planktonic bacteria on which AB MIC (minimum inhibitory conc) values determine
What is the solution for local delivery of antimicrobial agents for PD disease?
deliver an antimicrobial agent directly to the PD pocket by use of drug-containing gels or films
Examples of local delivery of antimicrobial agents?
- metronidazole - gel or cellulose strip
- chlorhexidine - chip; can kill most of red complex
- tetracycline - fiber
- doxycycline - gel
- minocyclone - gel or powder
What is Actisite?
first ex of localized antimicrobial therapy; ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) fiber containing 25% tetracycline
What is the amt/yield for normal delivery of tetracyclines in both serum & gingival crevicular fluid?
~10 ug/ml
What are afimbrial adhesins?
outer-memb or surface-exposed proteins that can bind to host cell surface-exposed proteins/carbs or can bind host proteins that then bind to the cell.
- they are made on the surface of the bact
What are coagulases?
enzymes that accelerate the formation of a fibrin clot around the organism which protects against phagocytosis by neutrophils & mac’s
What do Immunoglobulin A proteases allow?
They digest IgA, allowing colonization of mucous membranes.
How does Chlamydia survive inside a host’s cell?
It grows within a phagosome (inclusion) and does not fuse w/ the lysosome; it is obligate intracellular
How does Listeria survive inside a hist’s cell?
It enters the cell in a phagosome, and then escapes the phagosome by digestion of the memb; it is facultative intracellular; motile in cytoplasm bc of actin tails
What are enterotoxins?
exotoxins that result in watery diarrhea and tend to increase cellular lvls of cAMP (release of water & electrolytes > diarrhea)
What produces endotoxins?
ONLY G(-) bacteria; not secreted by exotoxins–released when cell lyses.
At high levels, what can LPS cause?
lethal toxicity, hypotension, septic shock, death
What recognizes LPS?
TLR4 & associated proteins
What is the toxic part of LPS?
Lipid A
Why is LPS not an effective vaccine target?
weakly immunogenic; does not result in an adaptive immune response w/ “memory”
What are the traits of exotoxins? (8 pts)
- secreted from living cell
- produced by G(+) & G(-)
- heat-labile
- highly immunogenic; can be converted to toxoids
- antisera neutralizes toxin
- highly toxic
- doesn’t usu cause fever
- frequently encoded on extrachromosomal elements (plasmids & phage)
What are the traits of endotoxins?
- produced by G(-) only
- heat-stable
- weakly immunogenic (cannot be converted to toxoids)
- antisera does not neutralize toxicity
- moderately toxic
- induce inflamm, fever, and septic shock
- encoded by chromosomal genes
Antisera can neutralize endotoxins, but not exotoxins?
WRONG, They can neutralize extotoxins, NOT endotoxins.
What mechanisms do microbial pathogens use to
adhere to host cells?
pili or fimbriae, and afimbrial adhesins!
What are the effects of base-pair substitutions?
- none (no AA change)
- missense (AA change)
- nonsense (stop codon created)
What is the difference between forward and reverse genetics?
Forward genetics is an approach used to identify genes (or set of genes) responsible for a particular phenotype of an organism.
Reverse genetics analyzes the phenotype of an organism following the disruption of a known gene.
***simplified: reverse genetics- force a mutation in DNA and look for change in phenotype. forward- see a change and then map the DNA
What are the types of mutations?
- base-pair substitutions
- addition/deletion
- DNA rearrangements
What is an example of a chemical mutagen?
base analogs - chemicals that mimic bases & get incorporated in DNA; usu results in improper base pairings (ex. intercalating agents, modifying agents)
What is an example of physical mutagens?
ionizing radiation, ultraviolet light (they result in distortion of DNA molecule itself
What does ionizing radiation do to cause mutations?
double and single-stranded DNA breaks
What does ultraviolet light do to cause mutations?
produce pyrimidine dimers on the same strand
What are the causes of mutations?
- chemical mutagens
- physical mutagens
- replication errors
- DNA insertions
What is a cistron? Operon? Regulon?
- cistron: DNA encoding a prot
- operon: DNA encoding > 1 prot (usu linked together)
- regulon: group of genes that co-regulate (don’t have to be directly next to each other)
The binding of certain promoters is directed by what?
sigma-factors (that form part of the RNA polymerase)
- sigma factors directs polymerase to promotor–process = promoter recognition
What does a repressor protein do?
Binds near a promoter and blocks transcription (negative control)
What are examples of positive control?
- activator protein binding near promoter and enabling transcription
- molecule binding to repressor protein causing its release
What does the operon consist of?
promoter (P), operator )O) sites, & structural genes which code for protein.
The operon is regulated by what?
the product of the regulatory gene (I)
Where does the repressor protein generally bind?
to the operator sequence, which is downstream of the promoter and upstream of the structural gene(s).
What is a direct repressor? Co-repressor?
- Direct repressor - controls expression of operon
- Co-repressor - requires binding of a 2nd molecule before binding the operator sequence
What is the role of tryptophan in the Trp biosynthetic operon?
- When Trp (co-repressor) is present, it binds to Repressor protein, which then binds to the operator–results in no expression of operon!
- However, when Trp is absent, no binding of the repressor protein, and there will be expression of genes to synthesize Trp
- Trp = repressor! (oppos of Lactose)
What do inducers do?
They inactivate repressor proteins by binding to them, thus preventing them from binding to the operator sequence.
Enzymes encoded by ____ are required for lactose catabolism.
lacZYA
What happens when lactose (allolactose) is absent? What happens when it is present?
- absent: LacI repressor binds to operator, no expression
- present: LacI repressor binds to allolactose, is inactivated & released from operator
- allolactose = inducer!! (oppos of Trp)
What is signal transduction a response to?
an environmental condition
What is the role of a sensor? Role of transducer?
Both are part of the 2 component system of Signal Transduction
- Sensor: on outer surf of bact will phosphorylate the intracellular transducer when a signal is detected
- Transducer: activated by the phosphorylation will bind to upstream region of genes & activates transcription (basically turns expression on)
What is the PhoP/PhoQ System?
- system that pathogens have evolved to determine the inside/outside of cells
- PhoQ = sensory of extracytoplasmic Mg2+ (which is in high conc outside of a cell, and low conc in cytoplasm of mammalian cells)
- PhoP = is phosphorylated by PhoQ and controls expression of a large number of genes under low Mg2+ conc by binding a direct hexanucleotide repeat
- PhoP controls a system that activates a second 2 component sys that controls biosynthesis of LPS
What is the autoinducer?
Molecule that controls quorum sensing system; produced by bacteria
- acylhomoserine lactones in G(-)
- peptides in G(+)
What is “Quorum Quenching”?
use of autoinducer analogs to control expression of bacterial virulence factors
What are the 3 primary mechanisms of horizontal transfer of DNA? Briefly elaborate on the 3 mechanisms.
- Conjugation: direct cell-to-cell transfer of plasmid DNA (highly efficient)
- Transduction: viral transfer of DNA (smal chromosomal pieces, low freq event)
- Transformation: transfer of free DNA (inefficient process, but some bact are “naturally competent” & have high transformation rates”
What is f-factor movement?
plasmid transfer via sex pilus results in conversion of F- cell to F+ cell
What is HFR formation?
HFR = high frequency recombination
- following plasmid transfer, the plasmid is integrated into recipient cell’s chromosome