Fungi

Question 1

Why is treatment for fungal pathogens different from treatment for bacterial pathogens?

Answer 1

Fungi are eukaryotic organisms, and bacterial pathogens are prokaryotic

Question 2

What are the typical targets for treatment of fungal pathogens?

Answer 2

Nuclear membrane - it is made of ergosterol, unlike humans

Cell wall - it is made of chitin, manna, and glucan, unlike plants

Question 3

What form are most fungal pathogens most effectively pathogenic?

Answer 3

Yeasts are typically more pathogenic

Question 4

What are the two main forms of fungi?

Answer 4

Yeast (unicellular)

Molds (branching filaments - hyphae)

Question 5

How significant are the fungi that are pathogenic in the big picture of human health?

Answer 5

• People die of fungal infections in industrialized countries
• Antifungal drugs are profitable for pharmaceutical companies
• Sequencing of the genomes of most human pathogens is almost complete, and sequencing of other genomes is underway or projected

Question 6

What are the two types of mycoses

Answer 6

Endemic

Opprotunistic

Question 7

Endemic

Answer 7

Infections caused by fungal pathogens that are restricted geographically
True pathogens that typically result in systemic infections in healthy individuals

Question 8

Opprotunistic

Answer 8

Infections caused by fungi that are not true pathogens

Cause systemic infections only in immunocompromised patients

Question 9

Histoplasmosis Geography

Answer 9

Mid-southern US

Question 10

Histoplasmosis Health concern

Answer 10

90% of population is infected - most produce no.mild symptoms
Part of normal skin flora

Question 11

Blastomycosis Geography

Answer 11

primarily found in the Mississippi River Valley and southeastern states, but extends up into Canada

Question 12

Coccidiodomycosis Geography

Answer 12

Lower sonoran life zone: Arizona, S. California, New Mexico, Texas

Question 13

Blastomycosis Health Concern

Answer 13

If inhaled, they can invade mucosa, causing pneumonia and heamtogenous dissemination

Question 14

Coccidiodomycosis Health Concern

Answer 14

Most healthy people have no/mild symptoms
Biggest concern is with dark-skinned individuals
Part of normal skin flora

Question 15

Why is Candida capable of causing disease when other normal skin flora do not?

Answer 15

They do not cause infection unless the normal flora is dissrupted
It is in the mycelial form, not yeast form

Question 16

What 2 typical skin flora are opprotunisitic pathogens?

Answer 16

Candida

Pneumocystis

Question 17

What is a geophilic opprotunistic pathogen and why?

Answer 17

Cryptococcys neoformans - grows well at 37 degrees and produces a virulence factor in tissues, but not the environment

Question 18

Why are zoophilic pathogens much more capable of infecting the human body?

Answer 18

Animals have similar environments to humans as compared to the soil

Question 19

What are critical characteristics of humans that create the opprotunity for fungal infections?

Answer 19

37 degrees

Question 20

What people/areas are viewed as oddities and may be more succeptible to fungal infection?

Answer 20

Immunocompromised people

Acidic areas

Question 21

What are the key differences in immune response to disseminated and cutaneous infections

Answer 21

Cutaneous infection response is primarily innate immunity

Disseminated is cell-mediated

Question 22

Why is ringworm listed as a fungal pathogen and not a parasite?

Answer 22

There has to be skin trauma for an infection to incur.

Ringworm cannot be systemic

Question 23

Under what conditions can dermatophytes cause disease?

Answer 23

Skin trauma

Acute or chronic infection