‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

BACTERIAL
PATHOGENESIS

Prof. Khalifa Sifaw Ghenghesh

Dept. of Medical Microbiology,
Faculty of Medicine, Al-Fateh University,
Tripoli-Libya
The Pathogen:
• A Disease Producing Microorganism.

Pathogenicity:
• Capacity to Initiate Disease.

Virulence:
• Capacity to Harm the Host.
• Refer to Degree of Pathogenicity.

Opportunistic Pathogens:
• Common or Non Pathogenic Microbes. e.g.
Normal Flora of the Body.
Infection:
• The Lodgement and Multiplication of a
Parasite in or on the Tissues of a Host.

Disease:
• A Rare Consequence of Infection.

Measurement of Virulence:
• The Median Lethal Dose (LD50) is Used.
• Number of Microorganisms or Micrograms of
Toxin Required to Kill 50% of Infected Animals.
 Koch's Postulates
Isolated
• diseased not healthy people
Growth
• pure culture
Induce disease
• susceptible animals
Re-isolated
• susceptible animals
 PATHOGENICITY
Virulence factors (Determinants of pathogenicity)
Number of initial organisms
Immune status
VIRULENCE FACTORS
Virulence factors help bacteria to:
• Invade the host,
• Cause disease, and
• Evade host defenses.
 Toxigenicity .1

Tissue injury:
• Exotoxins:
• Include several types of protein toxins and
enzymes produced and/or secreted from
pathogenic bacteria.
• Include cytotoxins, neurotoxins, and
enterotoxins.
• Endotoxins:
• Lipopolysaccharide
• Gram-negative bacteria
• Endotoxic (Septic) Shock:
• Hypotension (tissue pooling of fluids)
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation
• Fever
• Lack of effective oxygenation
• Overall system failure
 Differentiation of Exotoxins and Endotoxins.

Exotoxins Endotoxins
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Excreted by living cells. -Released after death of bacteria.
-Relatively unstable. -Relatively stable.
-Highly antigenic; -Do not stimulate formation
stimulate the formation of antitoxin.
of high-titer antitoxin.
-Converted into antigenic, -Not converted into toxoids.
nontoxic toxoids.
-Highly toxic. -Weakly toxic.
-Do not produce -Often produce fever
fever in host. in host.
 Invasiveness .2
Capacity of a pathogen to spread in the
host tissues after establishing infection.

Surface components that allow the bacterium to

invade host cells can be encoded on plasmids,
but more often are on the chromosome.
 Penetration and spread
Epithelium

Salmonella typhi

Salmonella enteritidis

Vibrio cholerae
 3. Capsules

Antiphagocytic structures
Polysacchride
 Adhesion .4
The Relatively Stable, Irreversible
Attachment of Bacteria to a Surface.
• Fimbrial Adhesins
• Nonfimbrial Proteinaceous Adhesins.
 BACTERIUM

adhesin

receptor

EPITHELIUM
E. coli with fimbriae (Pili)
 5. Siderophores

Iron-binding factors that allow some

bacteria to compete with the host for
iron, which is bound to hemoglobin,
transferrin, and lactoferrin.
 6. Other Aggressions

Mainly Enzymes:
• Hyaluronidase >> Spreading Factor.
• Coagualse >> Thrombin - Like Enzyme.
• Fibrinolysin >> Streptokinase.
• Proteases >> Hydrolyse Immunoglobulins.
• Others