Lecture 17 - Campylobacter and Helicobacter

Characteristics of Campylobacter jejuni

Microaerophilic, darting motility with polar flagella, most common human isolate

What are some symptoms of Campylobacter gastrointestinal disease?

Can be asymp to life threatening megacolon. Usually nausea, diarrhea

Disease presentation in developed countries

Severe inflammatory diarrhea

Disease presentation in developing countries

mild, non-inflammatory diarrhea. Possibly hygiene hypothesis

What are two notable sequelae of Campylobacter infections?

Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Reiter’s Syndrome

Antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter

InvUsually antibiotics are not needed. Since poultry is a common source of infection, there is debate about antibiotic use in chickens

What kind of disease does C. jejuni cause?

Invasive disease of the small distal small intestine and colon

How does C. jejuni cause disease?

Motility and chemotaxis, adhesion with other surface lipoproteins, glycosylation of proteins, and Type 3/Type 4 secret system

Genetics of C. jejuni

Naturally competent through transformation and hyper variable sequences for slipped-strand mispairing and intragenomic recombination and variation

Characteristics of Helicobacter pylori

g-r that are curved, membrane-sheathed flagella, cause chronic infections

What diseases are associated with H. pylori in Canada?

Gastritis such as PUD (peptic ulcer disease), gastric cancer and MALT lymphomas

How is H. pylori diagnosed?

Urea is ingested and production of CO2 is measured or fecal antigen test

Triple Therapy Eradication

Proton pump inhibitor, clarithromycin, amoxicillin and bismuth

Virulence factors of H. pylori

Flagella, urease, Lewis x,y antigens, VacA, CagA

What role does urease play in H. pylori?

Protects the bacteria until they reach mucin