Biology Geeks - help with the plague!

[Huntingtons]

Im reading up on the Yersinia Pestis bacteria and i found that it lives within cells. now my question is (cant find it on wikipedia, has a shitty bacteria section), how does it enter cells - is it a wannabe vira lapsing onto cells and filling them with d/rna?

 

[Nate]

I heard it enters cells when Vlad is in the vicinity. He's very good at entering, or so Gamah told me!

 

[Huntingtons]

I heard it enters cells when Vlad is in the vicinity. He's very good at entering, or so Gamah told me!

better hope that the censor and my teachers have been checking fh then!

 

[old.Tohtori]

Well i dunno much about bacteria or sh*t like that, but i did have a brainfart and thought it would be hellafunn if the original post was made by some guy named "UsimaBLaiden" or sumthing

 

[Pirkel]

Well i dunno much about bacteria or sh*t like that, but i did have a brainfart and thought it would be hellafunn if the original post was made by some guy named "UsimaBLaiden" or sumthing

Omg Seel you're a genius ... Huntingtons = Osama!

Quick someone call Bush

 

[old.Tohtori]

Omg Seel you're a genius

Oh i'll know you'll regret saying that in the morning.

Even if it is "slightly" out of context

 

[swords]

I will check, give me 5 mins.
Though cell invasion by pathogens is either certain proteins expressed on the pathogen surface which allows adhesion (adhesins) and then can trigger the host cell to invaginate its membrane, forming a vesicle containing the pathogen (off the top of my head) or barge their way in using proteins known as invasins. Other ways of cell invasion are usually letto the cell take it up (think phagocytes) and then being able to evade the defence mechanisms empoyed to destroy whatever is in that vesicle.
Having checked, it's probably a combination of those, depending on the strain. Look up adhesins and invasins for more detail of the types of interactions with host cell membranes. Then look up virulence genes involved in evasion of host cell defences, usually when a phygocyte takes up a pathogen it merges a vesicle containing enzymes (lysozymes) at low pH or it contains reactive oxygen species which all go to work destroying whatever is in there. The usual way of evading this (TB does this) is by preventing the vesicle carrying this payload of death from merging with the vesicle the pathogen is in. Essentially it lets itself get taken up then pulls a fast one, giving it a free ride and a lovely new home to replicate.

 

[psyco]

Quick someone call Bush

he's to buzy learning how to count

 

[AngelHeal]

he's to buzy learning how to count

yeh, like: is Iraq America now aswell? or a new state? since there are more americans there, then in the avarage state of the US?

 

[Serbitar]

invaginate

hur hur xD

 

[Huntingtons]

alot of biological mumbojumbo

thanks man, now i just have to translate it into a language i actully speak

 

[Thadius]

I heard it enters cells when Vlad is in the vicinity. He's very good at entering, or so Gamah told me!

Vlad sure enjoys being in prison, especially the showers. He drops the soap on purpose

 

[swords]

thanks man, now i just have to translate it into a language i actully speak

Adhesins are the protein equivalent of grappling hooks (imagine the pathogens are cat burglars), the invasins are the glass cutters that get them inside the bank/whatever... And they have other proteins which stop the SWAT team from breaking in and kicking the living shit out of them and such, or disable to security cameras so noone can see whos in there (that one will make sense if you ever study innate and acquired immunity).

You asked for Biogeek and you got it!

 

[Bugz]

Reading up on it, I'd imagine it attaches to the cell wall and injects the DNA from the plasmids (of which the plague had many - which should support this idea). Then ofcourse, the virus DNA controls the production of further virus DNA within the cell. Eventually the cell would burst due to the pressure, relasing the particles, which carry on in a chain-reaction kind of thing.

 

[swords]

Yersinia is a bacteria, not a virus particle. The virulence genes on the plasmid are simply expressed by the cell to produce the proteins it needs to cause virulence. Kinda like having a how to book for making weaponry and equipment.

 

[Tilda]

Best one liner of the day swords

 

[psyco]

Best one liner of the day swords

i dont get it

 

[swords]

http://www.tu-braunschweig.de/Medien-DB/ifm/yersinia-uptake.jpg

Oh look what I stumbled upon Bow before the super-geek :worthy:

 

[crispy]

Good luck bro!!!!

 

[DocWolfe]

Thank fuck someone finally edited the title of this thread... the "Biologi" part was annoying me/

 

[psyco]

Thank fuck someone finally edited the title of this thread... the "Biologi" part was annoying me/

i thought it was an intended mistake... though, i guess it was too little too late.. as its already been answered, from what i can understand

 

[swords]

It has bitches :england:

 

[Huntingtons]

http://www.tu-braunschweig.de/Medien-DB/ifm/yersinia-uptake.jpg

Oh look what I stumbled upon Bow before the super-geek :worthy:

mand i fucking love you, thats some hot shit you found there, i got a hard on - now problem is find a source that my teachers will actully accept as a source and not some online forum talk

biology in danish is with 'i' in the end! SORRY!

think this is biology beyond my level tho (b level ftl :<)

 

[swords]

Pubmed is your friend.
http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/full/68/8/4523?view=long&pmid=10899851

See if you can find something a bit more recent, that was published in 2000 so there may well have been other articles perhaps with a better overview of cell invasion etc.

 

[swords]

http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/full/74/10/5636 That might be more useful, I know its advanced but just read the introduction or abstract. Gives you what they found out and why they did it, don't need to know how they did it realy

The interesting bit is the fact that they may be able to invade and colonise epithelial cells (so eating infected meat -> maybe lets them invade through the gut lining) and its known they can get taken up by macrophages (phagocytes, white blood cells that ingest anything wierd they find). They have to have some things on the virulence plasmids which let them evade the normal macrophage response (eat, contain, destroy) so that they get eaten, contained (nice snug cosy home) but avoid being destroyed.

 

[Huntingtons]

http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/full/74/10/5636 That might be more useful, I know its advanced but just read the introduction or abstract. Gives you what they found out and why they did it, don't need to know how they did it realy

The interesting bit is the fact that they may be able to invade and colonise epithelial cells (so eating infected meat -> maybe lets them invade through the gut lining) and its known they can get taken up by macrophages (phagocytes, white blood cells that ingest anything wierd they find). They have to have some things on the virulence plasmids which let them evade the normal macrophage response (eat, contain, destroy) so that they get eaten, contained (nice snug cosy home) but avoid being destroyed.

so instead they will just be excluded with the rest of the bi-product of the devouring by the magrophage?

thanks for the links mate, repping you. will see if i get the use of it. bad idea to scribble it down in my paper if im not sure i understand it

 

[swords]

Oh no, even better! they get their own phagosome (fancy name for a vesicle containing something which was ingested) which the macrophage can't do anything to, they can grow comfortably in there taking nutrients from the cytoplasm of the macrophage itself till the macrophage dies.
One of the things about bubonic plague is that the buboes (swelling of lymph nodes) is caused by the bacteria invading unactivated macrophages (they can phagocytose things but they don't have all their anti-infection weaponry activated) and reproducing to vast numbers. Dying macrophages and the presence of masses of bacteria causes huge inflammation in the lymph nodes (hence the swelling). Eventually so many bacteria are produced that they travel through the circulatory system, invading other organs and generally overpowering the body with sheer numbers.

So the ability to invade cells like macrophages and grow without fear of reprisal allows them to grow to such overwhelming numbers, without this protection they are easy prey to your specific immune system.

 

[Huntingtons]

fuck me sideways, thats something that should be present in my assignment since its been stated as such: 'go through the biological cause of the disease and explain the sequence of which the disease develops and possible curing.'

hmm, but how will the antibiotics work then? if the bacteria just hides in a host (in a host, heh!)

 

[swords]

I would guess that administering antibiotics will kill (it'd have to be bactericidal in this case I feel) alot of the free bacteria in the blood stream and maybe other tissues (drug delivery and transport in a human body is complicated, just injecting it is the first step, getting it into tissues and organs is more or less difficult depending on where the infection is).
If you can keep killing them to stop them building up in numbers you will give the body enough time to recognise the specific pathogen and develop antibodies against them, activate macrophages and other specialised white blood cells, cause activation of compliment and lots of other nifty ways of killing off a bacteria like this.
You also have vaccines (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15174978) but in this case there are problems with widespread use in the population.