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Pathogenic Microbiology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Pathogenic Microbiology

The Surreptitious Survival Of The Emerging Pathogen Staphylococcus Lugdunensis In Macrophages Enhances S. Aureus Infection, David Watson Aug 2018

The Surreptitious Survival Of The Emerging Pathogen Staphylococcus Lugdunensis In Macrophages Enhances S. Aureus Infection, David Watson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Staphylococcus lugdunensis is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause invasive infections suggesting an ability to circumvent host immunity. S. lugdunensis was shown to resist killing and persist within macrophages and acetylation of its peptidoglycan is important for this survival. This was consistent in vivo, as S. lugdunensis resides inside Kupffer cells for at least 16 hours post-infection in mice. Despite its capability for survival, S. lugdunensis is unable to replicate within phagolysosomes. Inhibiting phagolysosomal effectors allows S. lugdunensis to initiate replication, after which the bacteria escape phagosomal containment. Moreover, intracellular S. lugdunensis augments the growth S. aureus during co-infection. Eight …


Iron And Copper Homeostasis In Staphylococcus Aureus, Holly A. Laakso Feb 2018

Iron And Copper Homeostasis In Staphylococcus Aureus, Holly A. Laakso

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

All microorganisms require transition metals for key metabolic processes, thus during infection microbial access to essential metals is tightly regulated by the host in a process termed nutritional immunity. Iron acquisition is critical to the pathogenesis of the formidable human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, which utilizes heme-uptake systems and two high-affinity iron-scavenging siderophores, staphyloferrin A (SA) and staphyloferrin B (SB) for iron acquisition. In this study, I identify sbnI as encoding a transcription factor required for expression of genes in the sbn operon, the biosynthetic operon for SB synthesis. I also show that SbnI is a novel hemoprotein, where binding …


Antibody Dependent Enhancement Of Visceral Leishmaniasis, Alan K. Mcnolty Jan 2018

Antibody Dependent Enhancement Of Visceral Leishmaniasis, Alan K. Mcnolty

All Master's Theses

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by protozoans of the genus Leishmania. This vector-born disease, transmitted by biting phlebotomine sandflies, typically manifests in one of three ways. The cutaneous form of the disease is characterized by localized lesions of the skin and is by far the most common manifestation. The visceral form of the disease is caused by parasitic infiltration of internal organs, particularly the spleen, liver, and bone marrow. The mucocutaneous form is caused by parasitic infection of the mucosa in the nose or mouth. While cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is often self-healing, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is fatal if …