Characteristics of mycoplasmas
Mycoplasmas have several characteristics that enable them to cause diseases at different sites in the body of the host. For instance, the mycoplasma consists of a cell that contains the minimum set of organelles (Kashyap & Sarkar, 2010). The minimum set of organelles is always essential for growth as well as replication. Replication permits them to be many increasing their chances of survival hence causing disease in the body. Some mycoplasmas have peculiar attachment organelles that are shaped like a tapered tip in M pneumoniae as well as M genitalium. Regarding this, these two mycoplasmas exhibit gliding motility on the surfaces covered by liquids. Nevertheless, the tip structure leads while providing its effect in the attachment. Besides, mycoplasmas possess a unique fried-egg colony shape that consists of a central zone of growth embedded in the agar as well as peripheral one on the agar surface (Kashyap & Sarkar, 2010). Also, mycoplasmas lack cells and have intracytoplasmic membranes. As a result, they facilitate isolation of the mycoplasma membrane in a relatively pure form.
There are examples of diseases that are caused by mycoplasma and ureaplasma. For instance, mycoplasma pneuminiae, mycoplasma genitalium, mycoplasma hominis, ureaplasma urealyticum and ureaplasma parvum. Mycoplasma pneumoniae causes lung infections. An individual can get infected by Mycoplasma pneumoniae through being close to an individual who is sneezing or coughing leaving droplets in the air. The symptoms for this disease are sore throat, cough, fever, fatigue and headache. Mycoplasma genitalia is transmitted through sexual contact with an individual who has the disease. The symptoms include having pain during sex, vaginal bleeding after sex and getting discharge from the vagina. Moreover, in men, the disease can cause urethritis, burning during peeing and discharge from the penis. Mycoplasma hominis bacteria live in the urinary tract and genitals. In women, the bacteria are linked to a pelvic inflammatory disease that is an infection of the individual’s reproductive organs. When a woman is pregnant, they can lead to ectopic pregnancy, early delivery as well as miscarriage. Most healthy women have ureaplasma urealyticum and ureaplasma parvum in their cervix or vagina. Nevertheless, in males, a small number have them in their urethra. The symptoms include, an individual getting hurt when peeing, having belly pain, pain, discharge or odour from the vagina, swelling at the opening o the urethra and discharge from the urethra.
The hypothesis that genital mycoplasmas can be an independent cause of disease.
Various assumptions exist pointing out that genital mycoplasmas can be an independent cause of disease. Regarding this, M. genitalium is independently associated with vaginal discharge. Moreover, it is positively associated with cervical inflammation in various studies whereby microscopic signs are considered independent of non-microscopic signs. As a result, it has given room for research since the proposed explanation is made based on limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
The virulence factors of Treponema pallidum.
Treponema pallidum causes syphilis which is a chronic sexually transmitted disease. The disease is separated into stages by clinical manifestations. Albeit, the late stages of the disease are uncommon when compared with the pre-antibiotic period. T. pallidum has a small genome and lacks genes that encode several metabolic functions and classical virulence factors (LaFond & Lukehart, 2006). Moreover, T. pallidum is always highly infectious and survives for long in the untreated host. Among the factors that contribute to T. pallidum is the paucity of integral outer membrane proteins that renders intact organisms invisible to the immune system. Consequently, this gives the bacteria a greater chance to move to almost all parts of the body in the host hence causing diseases. Another virulence factor is its corkscrew shape. In this case, the shape grants it the ability to move through gel-like material which is a necessity when moving through the oral cavities as well as genitals. As a result, this allows syphilis to penetrate in areas that other disease-causing bacteria could not reach.
Why has vaccine development for this pathogen been particularly challenging?
However, the T. pallidum exhibits complete sensitivity to penicillin, the vaccine development still faces a critical challenge. Syphilis has complicated stages that have different symptoms that prove to be hard to be dealt with. Furthermore, there is the availability of inexpensive as well as an effective treatment. As a result, it presents a compelling argument for the need for syphilis vaccine development. Another challenge is partial responsibility in general and lack of access or utilization of prenatal screening programs. Nevertheless, the assays that can detect antibodies to lipoidal and treponemal antigens are not available.