Medical and general microbiology Flashcards
(99 cards)
Disease definition
conditions that impair normal tissue function
What is Cystic fibrosis?
is due to a specific genotype that results in impaired transport of chloride ions across cell membranes – genetic or metabolic disease
What’s Atherosclerosis?
disease of aging, because it typically becomes a problem later in life after plaques of cholesterol have built up and partially blocked arteries
What’s measles?
infectious disease because it occurs when an individual contracts an outside agent
What’s an infection?
when a pathogen invades and begins growing within a host.
Disease results only if and when, as a consequence of the invasion and growth of a pathogen, tissue function is impaired.
What is a true pathogen and a opportunistic pathogen?
A true pathogen is an infectious agent that causes disease in virtually any susceptible host.
Opportunistic pathogens are potentially infectious agents that rarely cause disease in individuals with healthy immune system, lots of people don’t believe in them
What’s Pathogenicity
the capacity of a microbe to cause damage in a (susceptible) host.
So its a discontinuous variable
Interactions between microbes and hosts?
commensalism - an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm
colonisation
latency - Of an infection, a period in which the infection is present in the host without producing overt symptoms.
disease.
What counts as damage from a pathogen?
Tissue Pathology
Loss of organ function
Growth in normally sterile sites
What’s virulence?
is one of a number of possible outcomes of host-microbe interaction.
Virulence is a continuous variable, that is, it is defined by the amount of damage or disease that is manifest
How is virulence is measured?
See what dosage produces an ID50 (when 50% of the population is infected) or LD (When 50% of population is killed)
What is a virulence factor (Kochs molecular postulates)?
Easy definition is a microbial trait which causes disease
What’s the Limitations of the virulence factor concept?
The view that pathogenicity is conferred by virulence factors is difficult to apply to many microbes whose pathogenicity is limited mostly to immunocompromised hosts,
How can bacteria hide themselves?
Form a biofilm which protects them from the immune system
Also allows them to replicate
What could influence virulence and pathogenicity?
Microbiome Inoculum Sex Temperature Environment Age Chance History Immunity Nutrition Genetics
Misteaching
Gnotobiotic means?
microbe free
What are microbiota?
The microorganisms that typically inhabit a specific environment
What is the microbiome?
The totality of microbes, their genomes and environmental interactions in a defined environment. e.g. the gut of a human, soil sample
What is dysbiosis?
Microbial imbalance on or within the body
How many more microbial genes are there compared to ours?
100 times more
2 phyla that dominate fecal matter?
Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes
What do microbes do?
Involved in immune system regulation
remove toxins and carcinogens,
crowd out pathogens (colonisation resistance),
improve intestinal functions,
gut-brain links in communication,
as important to us as a liver- because of metabolites produced in gut.
Considered as a vital organ
Feature of silver?
Its an antimicrobial
How does Naturally microbial succession occur?
from birth to later years (critical inoculation in infancy/birth).