Parasitology and Anti-parasitic Drugs Flashcards
What are the four classes of protazoa?
Which can be free-living?
- amoeba - free
- flagellate- free
- coccidia (sporozoan) - obligate intracellular
- ciliates- free
What is the definitive host?
How does this differ from an intermediate host?
A host that harbors a parasite that is sexually mature (an adult) and is reproducing
An intermediate host harbors larvae and asexual stages of the parasite and may increase in number but are not reproducing
What is dysentery?
diarrhea with blood and mucous accompanied by fever and ab pain
What are microsporidia?
Organisms characterized by the production of spores with coiled polar tubes
What type of protozoa has an oocyst stage?
When they are found in feces, what three type of infections can be suspected?
Coccidia. The oocyst contains infectious sporozoites.
- cryptosporidium
- cyclospora
- Isospora
What are the two types of reproduction utilized by protozoa?
- Schizogeny- asexual
2. Sporogeny- sexual
What is the motile, feeding form of a protozoa?
Trophozoite
Describe the structure and size of protozoa.
- single,celled eukaryotes
- similar to mammalian cells except they have food storage granules, contractile and digestive vacuoles, and organs of motility
- 2 to 100 microns
What are the two structural differentiation factors that allow classification of various species of protozoa?
- karyosome and chromatin arrangement of the nucleus
2. organs of motility
What regions have the most blood and vector borne protozoa?
What regions have the most intestinal protozoa?
Blood/vector= tropical/subtropical Intestinal = temperate
How is metabolism in most parasitic protozoa accomplished?
facultative anaerobic metabolism (fermentation)
How do protozoa survive harsh conditions like drying out, chlorination, etc?
they form cysts (similar to the bacterial spore)
What is the only protozoa to undergo sexual reproduction in the human host?
What do MOST protozoa do to divide in human hosts?
Most protozoa use binary fission
Cryptosporidium (a coccidia) reproduce in human hosts
What is the motility of amoeba?
Where is the trophozoite stage and cyst stage?
It has a pseudopod
The trophozoite stage is in the gut/lumen
Cyst stage in shed in the feces
What are the two major categories of flagellate protozoa? What is an example of each type?
- luminal parasites- G. lamblia
2. hemoflagellates (blood tissue)- Typanosoma and Leishmania
What is the life cycle of a hemoflagellate?
It is a complex life cycle that has intracellular (nonflagellated) and extracellular stage (flagella)
It requires an arthropod vector
What is the only ciliate that is pathogenic for humans?
How does it infect and what is the presentation?
Balantidium coli which is transmitted by fecal-oral transmission and causes dystenery
What are the three locations of sporozoa infection?
What is an example of each?
- blood- plasmodium
- intestinal- cryptosporidium, cyclospora, t. gondii
- tissue- T. gondii
What do intestinal sporozoa generally cause?
diarrhea
Describe the transmission of T. gondii. Identify the definitive host and intermediate host.
T. gondii multiplies in the GI tract of cats (definitive host). They form oocysts which are pooped out. The oocysts make sporozoites which are picked up by an intermediate host (cattle or pigs) for asexual reproduction. They form cyst in tissue of the hosts
Describe the life cycle of plasmodium/
It undergoes schizogeny (asexual reproduction) in the hepatic cells and erythrocytes in humans.
The sexual reproduction stage is in mosquitos
What are microsporidia?
How are they acquired?
What is their infective form?
They are small sprozoa that are ihgested or inhaled. Their infective form is the spore that contains polar tubules
What five factors determine the pathogenesis of the protozoa?
- infective dose (# of parasites)
- mode of acquisition
- passage and target organ
- parasite and antigen load
- host response
________ multiply within the human host while __________ do NOT multiply in the human host.
Protozoa multiply in the host while helminths multiply outside the host
What is the best known pathogenic amoeba of the GI tract?
Describe its life cycle.
E. histolytica are ingested as mature cysts.
In the human they invades the wall of the colon.
Trophozoites multiply by binary fission and form cysts which are passed in feces.
What are the three free-living amoeba?
Where are they found?
When they do cause disease, how do they present?
Acanthamoeba Balamuthia Naegleria They are in water (tap, pools, lakes) They cause meningitis, meningoencephalitis, encephalitis
Describe the life cycle of Trypansoma brucei.
What type of protozoa is it?
What disease does it cause?
T. brucei is a blood/vector flagellate.
- Tsetse fly has a blood meal on a human and injects trypomastigotes into skin.
- Trypomastigotes go to lymphatics and then to bloodstream then to CSF
It causes African sleeping sickness
What is the life cycle of T. cruzi?
It is a blood/vector flagellate.
- Triatomine bugs bite the human and then poop.
- Trypomastigotes invate leukocytes and cells of subcutaneous tissue
- Trypomastigotes go to the heart and cause cardiomyophathy (Chaga’s)
- Spread back to triatomine through a second blood meal
Where are triatomine bugs located? What do they cause?
What is the tell-tale sign of infection?
They are located in mud huts and thatched roofs
Dogs can be vectors too
They cause Chaga’s.
The telltale sign is Romana’s sign (swollen eye and lips)
In addition to triatomine bugs, how else can T. cruzi be spread?
- blood donation
- transplacental
- fruit juices
- organ transplant
What is the arthropod vector for Leishmania?
Who would be likely to be infected by this?
Female sandflies
Soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq
Describe the life cycle of C. parvum.
It is a luminal sporozoa.
The cyst is ingested in water contaminated with animal or human feces.
Sporozoites infect GI epithelial cells and undergo asexual and sexual reproduction to form oocysts that are passed in the feces
What is the definitive host for T. gondii?
felines. Cats ingest cysts that invade epithelial cells of the small intestine. They replicate and form oocsyts which are excreted.
How does human infection occur for T. gondii?
- eat meat of an animal that ingested oocyst
- litter box cleaning
- blood transfusion
Where do T. gondii cysts form in humans?
in patients with AIDS they form in skeletal muscle, myocardium and brain
Describe the life cycle of Plasmodium.
- Mosquitoes have a blood meal and inject sporozoites into human
- Sporozoites go to liver cells, rupture them and infect the bloodstream causing anemia due to hemolysis
- Mosquitoes ingest the sexually mature plasmodium from blood
- Plasmodium does sexual replication in the mosquito (definitive host) and the cycle continues
What is the first thing you test with an intestinal infection?
Stool:
- vial with 10% formalin preserves protozoa cysts and helminths
- PVA vial preserves trophozoites
How does one examine specimen from the formalin vial?
How does one examine a specimen from the PVA vial?
Formalin- wet mount sample and use iodine and saline.
Iodine is taken up by the cyst to allow visualization
PVA- trichrome or Fe heatoxylin stain to ID trophozoites
What stain must be done to see a sporozoa?
acid-fast bacteria to detect the oocyst of cryptosporidium, cyclospora, isospora
What protozoa can be detected with immunofluorescence?
G. lamblia and Cryptosporidium antigens in the stool
How does diagnosis of blood or tissue protozoa begin?
How is definitive diagnosis achieved/
Initially you consider the geographic exposure and clinical symptoms.
Definitive diagnosis requires demonstration of the parasite in blood smears stained with Wright or Giemsa
Tissue biopsy is needed for T. cruzi and leishmania
What are the five ways to diagnose protozoa?
- stool
- blood smear
- serology
- tissue biopsy (t. cruzi and leishmania)
- molecular testing
What geographical regions are associated with helminth infections?
Tropical and subtropical but intestinal are temperate
How do helminths acquire nutrients?
How do they metabolize?
They actively ingest host tissue and body fluids.
They catabolize carbs and use anaerobic glycolytic cycle as the source of ATP
What are the two major groups of helminths?
Roundworms and flatworms
What are the two types of flatworms?
- tapeworms (cestodes)
2. flukes (trematodes)
What is the major free-living nematode?
How does it replicate?
What is the definitive host?
C. elegans
There are separate sexes that mate to form eggs (larvae) in human hosts, so they are the definitve host
What is the structure of the cestode? How does replication occur?
It is long and flat (ribbon like=tapeworm).
It has a chain of egg producing segments called proglottids.
Proglottids go through budding.
Tapeworm are hemaphrodites and self-fertilize to make eggs that leave the host via feces