Bacterial, Viral&Mycopalsmas Infections

An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply (usually at the expense of the host). The infecting organism, or pathogen, interferes with the normal functioning of the host and can lead to chronic wounds, gangrene, loss of an infected limb, and even death. The host's response to infection is inflammation. Colloquially, a pathogen is usually considered a microscopic organism though the definition is broader, including bacteria, parasites, fungi, viruses, prions, and viroids. A symbiosis between parasite and host, whereby the relationship is beneficial for the former but detrimental to the latter, is characterised as parasitism. The branch of medicine that focuses on infections and pathogens is infectious disease.

An infectious disease is a clinically evident disease that damages or injures the host that results from the presence of one or more pathogenic microbial agents, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions. These pathogens can cause diseases in both animals and plants. Transmission of an infectious disease may occur through several pathways; including through contact with infected individuals, by water, food, airborne inhalation, or through vector-borne spread.

Bacteria

• unicellular microorganisms
• ubiquitous in every habitat on Earth, growing in soil, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, seawater, and deep in the earth's crust.
• vital in recycling nutrients, and many important steps in nutrient cycles depend on bacteria, such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere
• there are approximately 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells in the human body, with large numbers of bacteria on the skin and in the digestive tract. The vast majority of these bacteria are rendered harmless or beneficial by the protective effects of the immune system
• there are a few pathogenic bacteria that cause infectious diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy and bubonic plague, tuberculosis
• in developed countries, antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections and in various agricultural processes, so antibiotic resistance is becoming common
• in industry, bacteria are important in processes such as wastewater treatment, the production of cheese and yoghurt, and the manufacture of antibiotics and other chemicals.

Virus

• a sub-microscopic particle (ranging in size from 20–300 nm) that can infect the cells of a biological organism
• viruses can replicate themselves only by infecting a host cell
• they infect both eukaryotes (animals, plants, protists, and fungi) and prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) organisms
• few antiviral drugs are known, and the best way to prevent viral diseases is with a vaccine, which produces immunity
• diseases caused by viruses include the common cold, the flu, chickenpox and cold sores, many serious diseases such as Ebola, AIDS, avian flu and SARS, neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome, cervical cancer (partially caused by papillomavirus), etc.

Mycoplasma
For many years, scientists  have been studying the relationship between mycoplasma (a type of bacteria) and different diseases such as cancer, auto-immune diseases (arthritis, lupus, sclerodemia, etc.), multiple sclerosis, ALS(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), chronic fatigue syndrome, candidiasis, etc.
Mycoplasma is the smallest free-living bacteria (0.2 Um); normal bacteria range between 1.0 - 5.0 Um.).

Mycoplasmas have certain characteristics, such as:

• it cannot be classified as gram (-) or Gram ( ), since they haven't cell wall
• it's the only bacteria with cholesterol in the cell membrane and can be cultured in vitro, in special medium with sterols
• it's strict aerobe (i.e. it needs oxygen to live)
• it metabolizes glucose (special characteristic)

Originally, this bacteria was classified as a virus (because of the small size), and as pleuro-pneumoniae organism (because was first found to be related to pneumonia). In 1960, Klineberg gave this bacteria the name of mycoplasma. Due to the small size and the lack of a cell wall, this microorganism is capable of infecting a great number of cells (any part of the body) and live as a parasite (saprophyte) in the surface of the cells. (Baril, 1979; Rarin, 1981). The mycoplasma can become a parasite in plants, insects, animals, and humans, and can trigger different diseases. Once the mycoplasma becomes a parasite in the cell, morphologic and physiologic changes are developed, and takes on the differentiation of various diseases-example, infections (mainly pneumonia-like, urethritis, pyelonefphritis, etc.) arthritis, lupus and other immune-diseases. In cancer, the tumor cells infected by mycoplasma are more susceptible to spreading and producing metastases in different parts of the body.In the same manner with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (especially when the symptoms are severe), Multiple Sclerosis, and ALS, it can spread over any cell of the body.

When a mycoplasma go into the cells, immune components as lymphocytes produce alterations in their functions, and perturbation of the normal immune response is made, such as  anergia (absence of immune response) or hypernergia (excess of immune response).

Once the Mycoplasmas get inside the cells (as a parasite) it is very difficult to cultivate and even some special tests are negative . It takes 10 days at least to grow the culture.

Thus, mycoplasma are:

• associated as direct cause or co-factor with pneumonia, immunodeficiency, aumtoimmune disorders, blood, skin, joint, central nervous system, liver, pancreas, and cardiovascular syndromes and disorders; inflammatory pelvic disease, urethritis, and other urinary tract diseases; cardititis, pericarditis, tachycardia, hemolytic anemia, and other coronary heart diseases; meningitis and encephalitis, seizures, ALS, Alzheimer's and other central nervous system infections, diseases and disorders; leukemia, and cancer; ,many chronic diseases including, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, diabetes, Crohn's Disease, ALS, nongonoccal urethritis, asthma, lupus, infertility, AIDS, just to name a few
• today, over 100 documented species of mycoplasmas have been recorded to cause various diseases in humans, animals, and plants
• mycoplasmas, unlike viruses, can grow in tissue fluids (blood, joint, heart, chest and spinal fluids) and can grow inside any living tissue cell without killing the cells, as most normal bacteria and viruses will do
• mycoplasmas are frequently found in the oral and genito-urinary tracts of normal healthy people and are found to infect females four times more often than males
• inflammation response often results in heated, swollen, and painful inflamed tissues, where the immune system begins attacking itself and/or seemingly healthy cells.
• mycoplasmas are parasitic in nature because they rely on the nutrients found in host cells including cholesterol, amino acids, fatty acids and even DNA
• mycoplasmas can generally be found in the mucous membrane in the respiratory tract
• mycoplasmas can even cause RNA and DNA mutation of the host cells and have been linked to certain cancers for this reason.
• mycoplasmas can also invade and live inside host cells which evade the immune system, especially white blood cells

                                                             Articles from  Wikipedia





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