Micro Lecture 1

Introduction to Medical Microbiology

Ma. Jennifer R. Tiburcio

 Introduction

Microbiology – the study of microorganisms

Consist of a large, diverse group of microscopic

organisms

Existing as single cell or in clusters

Viruses – microscopic but nor cellular

 Introduction

Benificial effects:
Breakdown wastes
Recycle elements in
nature
 Introduction

Commercial applications: production

of enzymes, alcohols, drugs and foods.
Genetic engineering: insulin, growth hormone,
interferon
 Introduction

Detrimental effects:
Spoilage of food
 Introduction

Detrimental effects:
Diseases
 Introduction

The agents of human infectious diseases belong to five

major groups of organisms namely
Bacteria
Fungi
Protozoa
Helminths
Viruses
 Bacteria

1. Relatively simple in structure.

2. Prokaryotic organisms – no nuclear membrane,

mitochondria, Golgi bodies or ER, reproduce by
asexual division.

3. Cell wall is complex, consisting of one or two basic

forms: Gram positive cell wall and Gram negative
cell wall.
 Bacteria

4. Some lack this cell wall structure and compensate

by surviving only inside the host cells or in a
hypertonic environment.

5. Size: 1 to 20 µm; Shape: cocci, bacilli or spirals.

6. Thousands of different species inhabit the human

body, some living transiently; others in a permanent
parasitic relationship.
 Bacteria

7. Environment is populated with bacteria, many of

which are relatively avirulent and some of which are
capable of producing life-threatening disease.

8. Disease can result from the toxic effects of bacterial

products or when bacteria invade normally sterile
sites.
 Bacteria

9. Eubacteria have caused a devastating epidemics of

human suffering (the bubonic plague) that killed
one fourth of the population of Europe in the 14th
century.
 Fungi

1. Cellular structure is more complex,

lack of motility and the absence of photosynthesis.

2. Because fungi cannot derive energy from sunlight,

they must depend on external source of organic
compounds to provide energy and chemical building
blocks necessary for growth and survival.
 Fungi

3. Although these nutrients are usually obtained from

dead organisms, some fungi can use living tissue as
a food source, often causing disease in the process.

4. Eukaryotic organisms containing well-defined

nucleus, mitochodria, Golgi bodies and ER.
 Fungi

5. Some fungi developed as single cells called yeasts;

whereas others produce networks of filaments
characteristic of molds.

6. A few fungi, existing as either a yeast or as a mold

depending on environmental conditions
(dimorphism).
 Fungi

7. Fungi cause some of the most persistent and

disfiguring disease still prevalent throughout the
world. Some fungi take advantage of the depressed
immune system of AIDS patients and are
responsible for life-threatening pneumonias.

8. They are also the sources of several antibiotics,

including penicillin that have saved countless lives
threatened by devastating bacterial infections.
 Viruses

1. Smallest infectious particles, ranging in diameter

from 16 – 800 nanometer.

2. Typically contain either DNA or RNA but not both;

some viral-like particles do not contain any
detectable nucleic acids (prions), while the recently
discovered Mimivirus infecting Acanthamoeba
contains both DNA and RNA.
 Viruses

3. They have no cytoplasm, no internal organelles and

no cellular machinery to synthesize their own protein
or to produce energy.

4. Obligate intracellular parasites – requiring biologic

machinery of a host cell to carry out the functions
needed for their reproduction and survival.

5. Can cause infectious diseases of humans, plants and

animals.
 Viruses

6. Infections can lead either to rapid replication or

destruction of the cell or to a long-term chronic
relationship with possible integration into the host’s
genome.

7. The virus determines the disease and can range

from the common cold to gastroenteritis to fatal
catastrophies such as rabies, ebola, dengue or AIDS.
 Prions

1. It was introduced to emphasize its proteinaceous

and infectious in nature.

2. Prions protein (PrP) is encoded by the host’s

chromosomal DNA, sensitive to proteases and
soluble in detergent.

3. PrP is expressed on the surface of neurons anchor in

both infected and uninfected brains,
 Prions

4. Diseases:
CJD (Creutzfeldt Jacob
Kuru
GSS

5. Human prion diseases are unique in that they

manifest as sporadic, genetic and infectious
diseases
 Comparison of medically important organisms
Characteristic Viruses Bacteria Fungi
Cells No Yes Yes
Approximate 0.02-0.2 1-5 3-10 (yeasts)
diameter
(µm)1
Nucleic acid Either DNA or Both DNA and Both DNA and
RNA RNA RNA
Type of None Prokaryotic Eukaryotic
nucleus
Ribosomes Absent 70S 80S
Mitochondria Absent Absent Present
 Comparison of medically important organisms
Characteristic Viruses Bacteria Fungi
Motility None Some None
Nature of Protein capsid Rigid wall Rigid wall
outer surface and containing containing
lipoprotein peptidoglycan chitin
envelope

Method of Not binary Binary fission Budding or

Replication fission mitosis