need help Pick an emerging or re-emerging bacterial infectious disease that is i
ID: 189934 • Letter: N
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Pick an emerging or re-emerging bacterial infectious disease that is interesting to you. Describe it, maybe where it is found and what conditions are contributing to its appearance. Finally, tell us all what antibiotic is used to treat it and how that chemical interacts with specific structures inside the bacterial cell to stop the infection. About a page in length should do the trick! Feel free to include any surprising information and your feelings about it, or other info. about your diseaseExplanation / Answer
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death among adults and is an important re-emerging disease. It kills nearly 500 children every day worldwide. More than 90% of TB-related deaths occur in developing countries. TB is now declared as a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993.
TB is more prevalent in Asia and Africa. TB is more common in immuno-compromised individuals, such as those with HIV infection. Hence, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, where HIV is prevalent or the general populations with low immunity due to social deprivation and poverty, show large number of TB cases.
TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which typically affects the lungs. However, nowadays this organisms can affects other parts of the body such as uterus, spine etc. Spread of this bacterium is through aerosols via sneezing of infected individuals, which can be transmitted to healthy individuals. Many TB infections may be asymptomatic and latent. Latent infections progress to active disease, which, can lead to death if untreated. Symptoms of TB include chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, chest pains, weakness, fever, and weight loss. TB can be diagnosed by microscopic examination of sputum samples by acid-fast staining. The tuberculin skin test (TST) and/or blood tests help tremendously in diagnosis of latent TB.
The prevalence of TB had been decreased due to immunization of infants with the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. This vaccine does not prevent primary infection reactivation of latent pulmonary infection. The impact of BCG vaccination on transmission of TB is limited.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has increased the number of TB cases around the world. AIDS results in complete destruction of the immune system. As a result, these individuals are susceptible to secondary infection such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
There are five drugs that are used to treat TB is a standardized regime. These are Isoniazid (H/Inh), Rifampicin or Rifampin (R/Rif), Pyrazinamide (Z/Pza), Ethambutol (E/Emb) and Streptomycin (S/Stm)
Isonazid: Mycobacterial enzyme KatG causes peroxidative activation of Isonazid in the body. As a result, reactive species are generated that form adducts with NAD(+) and NADP(+). These adduct will that are inhibit lipid and nucleic acid biosynthetic enzymes. Hence, there is inhibition of mycolic acid synthesis in the mycobacterium.
Rifampicin: Rifampicin inhibits bacteria DNA dependent RNA polymerase. Hence, RNA synthesis is inhibited due to blockage of elongation step.
Pyrazinamide: The enzyme pyrazinamidase in granuloma of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, converts pyrazinamide to the active form pyrazinoic acid. This acid inhibits fatty acid synthase 1 enzyme that is required by the bacterium to inhibit fatty acid synthesis. It may also disrupt membrane potential and interfere with energy metabolism in the bacteria.
Ethambutol: This drug is proposed to drug inhibit arabinosyl transferase. This enzyme polymerizes arabinose into arabinan and then arabinogalactan. Arabinoglycan is an important component of cell wall of mycobacteria.
Streptomycin: Streptomycin inhibits proteins synthesis by binding to the 16S RNS of 30S subunit of ribosomes. As a result, binding of formyl-methionyl-tRNA to the 30S subunit is inhibited.
The reemergence of TB is also attributed to the development of antibiotic resistance to these antibiotics. These infections are known as antibiotic resistant TB.
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