MIDTERM LEC: Trypanosoma Flashcards
● Located in the BLOOD AND TISSUE of humans
and other vertebrate hosts, and in the GUT of
insect vectors
● Digenetic and involves complex, pleomorphic
life cycles
● Transmission: via bite of an arthropod vector
● Main reservoir: humans
● Intermediate host: arthropod vector
HEMOFLAGELLATES
HEMOFLAGELLATES Two genera:
- Trypanosoma
- Leishmania
Vectors of hemoflagellates found in PH
○ T. cruzi:
Triatoma and Rhodnius bugs
Vectors of hemoflagellates found in PH
Leishmania spp:
Phlebotomus spp
MORPHOLOGICAL STAGES OF HEMOFLAGELLATES:
- A specialized region of the mitochondria consisting of a network of circular DNA (kDNA) that contains
many copies of the mitochondrial genome
- Crucial for replication and segregation of kDNA circles
- Consist of a deeply staining PARABASAL BODY and adjacent dotlike BLEPHAROPLAST
KINETOPLAST
MORPHOLOGICAL STAGES OF HEMOFLAGELLATES:
- Portion that is inside the body of the parasite and extends from blepharoplast to surface of the body
AXONEME
- FREE FLAGELLUM at the anterior end that traverses on the surface
- A SINUS EXTENSION of the cytoplasmic membrane which helps in movement by performing a vigorous, wavelike, reversible movements
UNDULATING MEMBRANE
Thin, hairlike structure which originates from the blepharoplast
FLAGELLUM
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
- Roundish-oval
- Size: 5 by 3 um
- Nucleus: large single, off-center
- No external flagellum
- ROUTINELY FOUND IN HUMANS
- Found primarily in tissues, as well as CNS
within macrophages, where they multiply
- Found intracellularly in vertebrate hosts of
T. cruzi and Leishmania spp.
AMASTIGOTE STAGE
- Long and slender
- Size: 9-15 um
- Nucleus: one, located in or near center
- Kinetoplast: anterior to nucleus; at anterior
end of cell - NO UNDULATING MEMBRANE
- INFECTIVE STAGE of Leishmania in the midgut
and proboscis of the insect vector - May only be seen if blood sample is collected
immediately after transmission to individual
PROMASTIGOTE STAGE
- Long and slightly wider than promastigote form
- Size: 9-15 um
- Nucleus: one, located in posterior end
- Kinetoplast: close to the nucleus than
promasitgote - Flagellum: runs alongside the body as a
short undulating membrane - T. gambiense and T. rhodesiense occur:
salivary glands of the vector tsetse fly - T. cruzi: midgut of the vector reduviid bug
- NOTE: ALL SPECIES OF Trypanosoma
that infects humans assume an epimastigote
stage in the insect vector or in culture
EPIMASTIGOTE
- Long, slender
- Size: 12-35 um long by 2-4 um wide
- Assume the shape of the letters C, S, or U in
stained blood films - Nucleus: single large, anterior to kinetoplast
- Routinely found in human specimens along
with the amastigote stage - Flagellum: runs alongside the entire long of
the cell forming a long undulating membrane - Infective stage of Trypanosoma found in
the arthropod vector - Stage found in the blood of the infected
invertebrate
TRYPOMASTIGOTE
From the Greek words trypano (borer) and
soma (body)
● Causes Chagas disease and Human
African Trypanosomiasis
● MOT: bites of infected Tsetse flies
● Definitive host: mammals
● Intermediate host: arthropod vector
● Known to invade the CNS, blood and tissues
causing acute and chronic protozoal diseases
Trypanosoma spp.
Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis is cause by?
Trypanosoma cruzi (trypanosome group Stercoraria)
Carlos Chagas - found that the trypanosomes he dissected from the intestine of a triatomid bug were the same parasites found in the blood of a child suffering from fever and enlargement of the lymph nodes.
Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is caused by?
Trypanosoma rhodisiense
morphological stages of Trypanosoma spp.
Amastigotes, promastigotes, epimastigotes, and
trypomastigotes
Two modes of development in the vector of Trypanosoma spp.
salivaria & stercoraria
trypanosomes migrate to the MOUTH PARTS of the vector so that the infection is transmitted via their
bite (inoculative transmission)
Salivaria
trypanosomes migrate to the HINDGUT and are passed in the feces. Acquired by rubbing the feces
of the vector into the wound caused by its bite
Stercoraria