BSC 431 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Lipopolysaccharide, Causative, Leptospira Interrogans

• School: University of Alabama
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BSC 431
• Professor: Julie Olson

Document Summary

Borrelia and leptospira (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Larger than other spirochetes (0. 2-0. 5 microns x 8-30 microns) Lyme disease: b. burgdorferi, b. garinii, b. afzelii. Caused by borrelia burgdorferi and at least 10 other borrelia spp. Mysterious outbreak of juvenile arthritis in lyme, conneticut. Recently, the borrelia that caused lyme disease in humans were divided into 3 species. Person is exposed to infected arthropods (ticks) which introduce the (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) organism into the bloodstream (cid:1) Organism present in low numbers in the skin when erythema migrans develops (not present in all affected) (cid:1) Late manifestations of the disease may result from cross-reactivity of the ag"s (cid:1) Ab"s are produced and clear the organism from the body via the complement system (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Has various unique outer surface proteins that are thought to play a role in virulence (cid:1)