Vibrio Cholerae-Pathogenesis

Question 1

What is cholera?

Answer 1

• life-threatening diarrheal disease
• can rapidly attain acute epidemic proportions in essentially any part of the world primarily though INADEQUATE SANITATION

Question 2

What is the causitive agent?

Answer 2

V. cholerae, a highly motile, uniflagellated, gram-NEG, CURVED ROD. It is an EXTRACELLULAR pathogen

Question 3

What must V. cholerae do in order to cause disease?

Answer 3

1. be ingested via contaminated food or water
2. survive passage through the gastric acid barrier of the stomach
3. colonize the upper small intestine (localized microcolonies with little invasion of other sites)
4. produce and excrete toxin
5. disseminate in a watery diarrhea

Question 4

VC and VF?

Answer 4

Throughout the process, VC expressed a number of virulence factors.

Question 5

What does VF do?

Answer 5

VF help VC reach, adhere to, and colonize the intestinal epithelial layer.

Question 6

How is VF kept in check/let loose?

Answer 6

The genes that encode the VF are regulated by environmental stimuli that are UNIQUE to the HOST.