Option A - Immunology and disease Flashcards
What is the human body for a wide variety of microorganisms?
A host
What is the human body a host for?
A wide variety of microorganisms
Term for the human body being a host for a wide variety of microorganisms
The microflora of the body
Microflora of the body
The wide variety of microorganisms in the human body
Why is the term “microflora” used?
Flora = plants
Bacteria used to be thought to be microscopic plants
Is all bacteria in the body bad?
No
Do all microorganisms cause disease?
No
What are our environments and body full of?
Microorganisms
What do many species of bacteria and fungi have with the human body?
A symbiotic relationship
What does the human body have a symbiotic relationship with a lot of?
Many species of bacteria and fungi
What do bacteria and fungi obtain from the human body in the symbiotic relationship?
Habitat and food
Services provided by many species of bacteria and fungi to the human body in the symbiotic relationship
Some gut bacteria aid digestion and absorption
Some provide vitamin K, a vitamin needed for blood clotting
On the outer surface of the skin, they outcompete pathogenic organisms
In the vagina, they produce lactic acid which prevents pathogenic growth
What do some species of bacteria do in the vagina?
Produce lactic acid which prevents pathogenic growth
What is vitamin K needed for?
Blood clotting
Vitamin needed for blood clotting
Vitamin K
What do bacteria and fungi do on the outer surface of the skin?
Outcompete pathogenic growth
What type of cells are there the most of in the human body- bacterial cells or human cells?
Bacterial cells
What’s the issue with some microorganisms? Explain
Some species are pathogenic or parasitic - they have the potential to cause disease if they secrete toxins or if their numbers increase too much
When do pathogenic or parasitic bacteria cause disease?
If they secrete toxins or if their numbers increase too much
What happens if pathogenic or parasitic species secrete toxins or if their numbers increase too much?
They have the potential to cause disease
Pathogens
An organism that causes disease to its host
An organism that causes disease to its host
Pathogen
What s cholera caused by?
A Gram negative bacterium which is endemic in some areas of the world
Endemic
The disease is always present at low areas in a particular region
What does the cholera bacteria do?
Its toxins affect the gut lining causing watery diarrhoea leading to severe dehydration and frequently death
What role do humans play in the spread of cholera?
They act as reservoirs or carriers and contaminate water supples in which the organism is transmitted
Reservoirs of infection
Where a population of organisms are host to the pathogenic bacteria/pathogenic organism (i.e - where the bacteria lives)
Reservoirs of infection for cholera
Humans
What would a carrier of cholera do?
May be symptomless and spread the disease
Where is the only place that cholera bacteria multiplied?
In the human host
How is cholera prevented?
By the treatment of water, good hygiene and the provision of clean drinking water
How is water purified to kill pathogens?
Using UV light or chlorine for example
Possible treatment of cholera
Antibiotic treatment
What is the main treatment of cholera?
Rehydration
How do we rehydrate someone with chloera?
Electrolytes and glucose in clean water
Derivation of vaccine for chloera
Killed organism or possibly genetically engineered
What would a vaccine do against cholera?
May provide temporary protection
How would cholera bacteria look when stained with Gram’s stain?
Characteristic curved rods (comma shaped)
What type of bacterium is the cholera bacteria?
Gram negative
Causative agent of cholera
Vibrio cholerae
Name for the bacteria that cases cholera
Vibrio cholerae
When are there concerns that cholera will spread?
In contaminated drinking water in developing areas or when a natural disaster occurs
Why would a natural disaster lead to an increase in the number of people with chloera?
The natural disaster will cause a collapse in the normal societal services so clean water cannot be provided
Explain exactly why cholera cases tend to increase following a natural disaster
The natural disaster will cause a collapse n the normal societal services so clean water cannot be provided
It’s therefore hard to obtain clean water to rehydrate to treat cholera and that water may be infected too, causing the cycle to repeat
What is the main think needed to treat chlolera and why?
Clean water
To rehydrate
Did cholera used to be a big deal?
Yes - it used to kill millions of people per year
How does Vibro cholerae cause cholera to happen?
By producing a toxin called choleragen
Toxin produced by vibrio cholerae
Choleragen
What does the toxin choleragen do?
Causes water loss in cells
Explain exactly how Vibrio cholerae producing choleragen leads to water loss in the cells
Choleragen raises the levels of intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) in the epithelial cells lining the gut
This reverses the action of the sodium and chloride pumps in the epithelial cell membrane
The cells actively pump Na+ and Cl- ions out and into the lumen of the gut
This causes a disturbance in the electrolyte balance of the body
High concentrations of salts build up in the lumen of the gut and this causes fluid loss from the body as a result of osmosis (the water potentials of the cells increase so large quantities of water leave the cell, leading to dehydration)
This fluid loss leads to circulatory collapse and possibly death
How does choleragen increase the levels of cAMP in epithelial cells?
The toxin activated Adeylate cyclase, and this causes cAMP to be synthesised
How is treatment of cholera with fluid replacement (rehydration fluid) done?
It’s either given orally or with a drip into the blood
What is TB caused by?
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
Bacteria that causes TB
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
What type of disease is TB?
Bacterial
Why is TB on the increase?
Partly Due to the link with the HIV epidemic
When can TB be spread rapidly?
In overcrowded conditions
How is TB transmitted?
In airborne droplets when infected people cough and sneeze
Explain how people with TB coughing and sneezing would lead to others catching TB
Sneezing projects fluid from the lungs onto surfaces that can be touched, and also the microscopic aerosol particles are water particles in which bacteria can live in. These stay in the air for a long time and can be breathed in.
What can be happen with the microscopic aerosol particles released when infected people cough and sneeze? Why?
They’re water particles in which bacteria can live in, so they stay in the air for a long time and can be breathed in
What does the most common form of TB attack?
The lungs and neck lymph nodes
Symptoms of TB
Coughing, chest pain, coughing up blood
How is TB prevented?
By a BCG vaccination programme for children
Treatment of TB
A long course of antibiotics (6 months)
What does TB do in the alveoli? Explain the result of this
Forms nodules and eventually fills them, therefore decreasing the surface area for the alveoli to exchange gases. If it happens to lots of the alveoli, it can become hard to get O2 into the blood.
What happens when TB forms nodules in lots of the alveoli?
It can become hard to get O2 into the blood
Describe the experience of having the TB disease
It’s a slow, progressive disease - someone as it for a while before their health starts to deteriorate
What did TB used to be spread through?
Infected milk
How is milk treated to avoid it spreading TB?
Pasteurisation of milk is now used to kill the Tuberculosis bacteria
- heated to kill the bacteria
TB
Tuberculosis
List the different ways in which viruses affect cells
- cell lysis when they escape form cells to infect other cells/organisms (shedding)
- production of toxic substances
- cell transformation where they can trigger cells to become cancerous
-suppress the immune system
Shedding
Cell lysis when viruses escape the cells to infect other cells/organisms
How are certain cancers avoided by cell transformation where viruses trigger cells to become cancerous?
HPV injections help avoid cervical cancers
Give an example of a viruses that suppresses the immune system
HIV affects T-helper cells
Describe the lytic cycle
- Virus injects its genetic material into the cell. The virus can also get into the cell by endocytosis to release its genetic material
- Viral genes contain viral DNA and these can be replicated to make new viral proteins inside the host cell
- New viral cells break out of the host cell, causing the lysis of the host cell, which kills the host cell, so that the viral cells can now infect other cells
Ways in which a virus particle can get into a host cell
-by the virus injecting its genetic material into the cell
-by endocytosis
What can happen instead of just the lytic cycle?
The lysogenic cycle
What happens during the lysogenic cycle?
DNA is incorporated into the cell and becomes part of the cell’s DNA but doesn’t cause the lytic cycle at first
What does the DNA of the virus do during the lysogenic cycle?
Can hide in the DNA of the cell and is replicated as viral DNA
In which cycle are there no symptoms and in which cycle are there symptoms?
No symptoms = lysogenic cycle
Symptoms = lytic cycle
What can happen at some point during the lysogenic cycle?
The virus can switch to the lytic cycle and cause symptoms
Explain chicken pox in terms of the 2 cycles of viruses
The chicken pox is always in the person’s body as part of the lysogenic cycle. The lytic cycle either happens earlier on in the person’s life and causes chickenpox, or it can stay n the system for a long time and the lytic cycle occurs later on to cause shingles. These both have different symptoms, but it’s the same virus causing both.
Can viruses be considered organisms?
It’s up for debate
What is the only organism that humans have intentionally made extinct (outside specialist laboratories)?
Small pox
What is small pox?
A disease caused by a virus
Which virus causes small pox?
Variola major
What does the virus Variola major do?
Causes small pox
Fatality rate of small pox v.s Covid
Small pox —> 30-60%
Covid —> 2%
How infectious was small pox?
Just as infectious as Covid, if not more
What was a successful immunisation program for small pox based on?
Its low rate of antigenic variation/mutation and the highly immunogenic nature of its component antigens
Why was the vaccine for small pox highly effective?
Because the virus has a low rate of mutation
Explain why so many more vaccines needed to be generated for Covid compared to small pox
The small pox virus had a low rate of mutation
Covid, on the other hand, had lots of variants due to mutations in the virus’ genetic material, which caused a change in the protein coat of the virus so that vaccines no longer worked
The virus causing small pox was much more stable, so just one vaccine could be used
This means that the vaccine was highly effective
Why do mutations mean that vaccines no longer work on viruses?
Mutations cause a change in the protein coat of the virus so vaccines no longer work
Extra reasons why small pox was able to be made extinct
There was no animal reservoir
People were keen to be immunised because of the devastating effects of the disease (much more serious than chicken pox)
How long has it been since there was a case of smallpox?
Many decades (since 1979)
What form a protein on the outside of the small pox virus?
Surface tubules
What do surface tubules do for a small pox virus?
Form a protein on the outside of the virus
Genetic material of a smallpox virus
DNA genome
Why do we still have some small pox virus particles in laboratories?
It’s important to keep some in order to make a vaccine if it reappears
Where is the nucleoprotein (RNA) of the influenza virus?
In the core of the virus
What is in the core of the influenza virus?
The nucleoprotein (RNA)
What type of virus is the influenza virus?
An RNA virus
Why is the influenza virus an RNA virus?
The genetic material of the virus is RNA
Is there more variation in the flu virus or the small pox virus? Why?
The influenza vis is an RNA virus
RNA mutates easier and more often than DNA
This means that there’s much more variation in the flu virus than the small pox virus
What is the protein coat of the influenza virus?
The capsid
What is the capsid of the influenza virus surrounded by?
A lipid envelope
What has the lipid envelope of the influenza virus derived from?
The host’s cell membrane
What does a virus do when it breaks out of a host cell via exocytosis?
Brings some of the host cell’s membrane with it
How does a virus break out of a host cell?
Via exocytosis
What do we refer to viruses as and why?
Particles, not cells
They don’t have organelles, just a core with genetic material
2 important spike proteins on the influenza envelope
Neuraminidase
Hemagglutinin
What can both Neuraminidase and Hemagglutanin do for the influenza virus?
These can lock onto receptors in the host cell membrane and enable the virus to gain entry into the host cell
What do the spikes on a particular influenza virus vary depending on?
The version of the flu virus
Examples of versions of influenza virus + explain
H5N1
H1N1
H = Hemagglutinin
N = Neuraminidase
= referring to the protein spikes
What is influenza caused by?
A virus
How many sub-groups of the influenza virus are there?
3 main sub groups
What is there within each main sub group of influenza virus?
Many different antigenic types
Give examples of antigenic types of the influenza virus?
H5N1, H1N1
What are H1N1 and H5N1 examples of?
Antigenic types of the influenza virus
Antigenic types
The types within the 3 main subgroups of the virus that causes influenza (e.g - H5N1, H1N1)
Where in the body does the influenza virus infect?
The upper respiratory tract
Symptoms of the influenza virus being present
Sore throat
Coughing
Fever
How do we know that someone isn’t suffering from the flu and it’s just a cold?
No fever (high temperature) = not the flu, just a cold
What do we know if someone says they have the usual symptoms of a cold but also a fever (high temperature)?
They might have the flu
How do sufferers spread flu?
By droplet infection
What does prevention of the flu include?
Quarantine and hygiene
Why is influenza difficult to control?
Its mode of spread is difficult to control
Affect of antibiotics on influenza
Ineffective
Why do we use antibiotics on people with the flu if antibiotics are ineffective against infleunza?
They’re only used to treat the symptoms of secondary bacterial infection
Explain how and why antibiotics are used to treat the symptoms of secondary bacterial infection (relating to the flu)
Antibiotics don’t affect viruses at all, so they’re not used for the actual flu. They’re used to treat secondary bacterial infection.
You’re more likely to get other symptoms from the flu due to the weakened immune system and those are what the antibiotics are used for
Why are you more likely to get other symptoms when you have the flu?
Since you’ll have a weakened immune system
What is currently being done to combat the flu?
Annul vaccination programmes are available
Why are annual vaccination programmes against the flu not always effective?
Due to the number of types, together with the emergence of new types of flu
What happens every year in terms of the flu?
Annual outbreaks
What’s true about annual vaccination programmes for the flu and why?
They’re not always effective due to the number of types, together with the emergence of new types
What is malaria caused by?
The parasite Plasmodium spp
What does the parasite Plasmodium spp. cause?
Malaria
What type of parasite is Plasmodium?
Protoctistan
Is malaria bacterial or viral? Why?
No
It’s caused by a parasite
Explain where malaria is present
It’s endemic in some sub-tropical regions (always present at a low level and rarely leads to big epidemics)
When can malaria lead to big epidemics?
In wet seasons
How come so many people are affected by malaria?
There are large populations in the areas where it’s endemic
Why is malaria so bad?
It can kill
What is malaria caused mainly by?
2 species, within which are many antigenic types
Why is malaria hard to vaccinate against?
The disease is caused mainly by 2 species, within which a re many antigenic types
What does it lead to due to there being many antigenic types of the 2 species that cause malaria?
It’s hard to vaccinate against
Why can malaria be regarded as a pandemic?
It affects millions of people worldwide and kills more than any other infection, despite the years of research and drug development
Which mosquitos are vectors of malaria?
Females
What are female mosquitos to malaria and why?
Vectors, since they transmit the parasite to new victims
Why are male mosquitos not vectors of malaria?
They feed on plant nectar, not blood
What type of mosquitos feed on blood?
Pregnant females
Why could the malaria parasite not exist without mosquitos?
It couldn’t be transmitted and part of its life cycle takes part in the mosquito
Where do malarial parasites reproduce asexually in a human?
Liver
Red blood cells
Describe the transmission of malaria
When a mosquito takes blood from an infected person, it takes in the sexually reproducing stage of Plasmodium called gametocytes. They produce zygotes high develop not an infective stage, called sporozoites. Sporozoites migrate from the mosquito’s gut to its salivary glands.
When the mosquito feeds on another human’s blood, it transmits the parasite - Pladmodium sporozoites in the mosquito’s saliva are infected into the human. They transfer to the liver and reproduce asexually in the liver cells to multiply and produce merozoites.
Merozoites are released into the blood and infect red blood cells, where they do more asexual reproduction to multiply in number.
The red blood cells burst and release more merozoites, which causes severe bouts of fever. The merozoites infect more red blood cells. This cycle repeats every few days and when the red blood cells burst, the fever recurs.
Some merozoites become gametocytes.
Where do the parasites migrate to in a mosquito ?
The salivary glands
When does someone experience severe bouts of fever with malaria?
When the parasite bursts out of red blood cells
Where does the sexual stage of the life cycle of the malarial parasite occur?
Starts in the human red blood cell and is completed in the mosquito (eggs and sperm develop and undergo fertilisation and form a zygote in the mosquito)
Why is malaria difficult to treat?
The parasite reproduces inside human cells (liver and red blood cells) where its able to hide from drugs and the immune system
Its evolved with us for millions of years and so its efficient at hiding from the immune system
How come the malarial parasites able to hide from drugs and the immune system?
The parasite reproduced inside human cells (liver and red blood cells)
When is the malarial parasite susceptible to drugs?
When it’s free in the blood plasma when its broken out of liver cells