<i>Bacillus anthracis</i>Dissemination through Hosts

Glomski, Ian J.

doi:10.1002/9780470891193.ch12

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 133 publications

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“…Spores may germinate as soon as 1 day or may remain dormant for weeks or months before germinating. 20,21 Depending on the circumstances of exposure, the inhalation form of anthrax may be the most prevalent form of serious, life-threatening disease after an anthrax attack. The incubation period for inhalation anthrax in humans is not well-defined and has ranged from 1 to 43 days, which may reflect delayed germination of inhaled spores or repeated inhalation of spores from the environment after the original exposure event.…”

Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…22 Occasionally, these prodromal signs and symptoms briefly improve before abrupt deterioration 7,23,24 to a more fulminant disease characterized by diaphoresis, stridor, dyspnea, hypotension, or acute respiratory distress. 7,20,23,25 These patients may develop sepsis accompanied by cyanosis, shock, and hemorrhagic pneumonia. Hemorrhagic pleural effusions often develop.…”

Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After an incubation period of 1 to 7 days after ingestion of bacilli or spores, gastrointestinal anthrax presents with signs and symptoms that can include severe abdominal pain and tenderness, nausea, vomiting, hematemesis, anorexia, and fever progressing to more severe systemic illness. 20,30–32 With antimicrobial treatment, gastrointestinal anthrax exhibits a mortality rate of 40% or less. 31 …”

Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Pediatric Anthrax Clinical Management

Bradley¹,

Peacock²,

Krug³

et al. 2014

Pediatrics

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Anthrax is a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, which has multiple routes of infection in humans, manifesting in different initial presentations of disease. Because B anthracis has the potential to be used as a biological weapon and can rapidly progress to systemic anthrax with high mortality in those who are exposed and untreated, clinical guidance that can be quickly implemented must be in place before any intentional release of the agent. This document provides clinical guidance for the prophylaxis and treatment of neonates, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults up to the age of 21 (referred to as “children”) in the event of a deliberate B anthracis release and offers guidance in areas where the unique characteristics of children dictate a different clinical recommendation from adults.

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Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Clinical Presentations Of Anthraxmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pediatric Anthrax Clinical Management

Bradley¹,

Peacock²,

Krug³

et al. 2014

Pediatrics

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“…Regardless of the route of infection, B. anthracis has a common method of dissemination ( Figure 3) [264,265]. Spores germinate in the initial site of the infection and the vegetative bacilli produce the exotoxin and capsule (Weiner et al, 2014).…”

Section: Dissemination Of Bacillus Anthracis In the Hostmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opening moves: early events in anthrax pathogenesis and their consequences for dissemination

Lowe

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Bacillus anthracis is a Gram positive sporulating bacterium that is the causative agent of anthrax. Early steps in dissemination are understudied due to the asymptomatic and asynchronous nature of B. anthracis infections. The goals of these studies are to establish a model of the early steps of B. anthracis infections and examine how the initial site of infection and exotoxin production affect bacterial dissemination. In these studies, a mouse model was used in combination with a bioluminescent signature tagged library to determine how B.anthracis disseminates through the host and the roles of an exotoxin component, lethal factor, in colonization and dissemination. This library allowed for real time observation of dissemination and analysis of bacterial population dynamics. In the first set of experiments, mice were infected via inhalational or subcutaneous routes with the tagged library to determine how the bacterial population changed during dissemination. In inhalational and subcutaneous infections, the disseminated population was comprised of a small subset of the original library.This indicated the presence of a population bottleneck, a random decrease in genetic diversity during the infection. Surprisingly, the diminishment and location of the bottleneck varied depending on the initial site of infection. This suggested B. anthracis exploits multiple host environments and some sites may be more permissive for dissemination than others. In the second set of experiments, mice were infected with a signature tagged library where a portion of clones lacked lethal factor. Lethal factor is known to be an important virulence factor as deletion results in attenuated or complete loss of virulence in most animal models. Host survival increased when < 10% of the library produced lethal factor, but few other differences were observed. Furthermore, decreases in the proportion of lethal factor producing clones led to fewer clones disseminating. These findings suggest that a threshold of lethal factor must be ii produced for colonization and dissemination to occur in vivo. In total, this work provides an understanding of how B. anthracis is able to rapidly disseminate from a several tissues and gives insights in where future therapeutics should be focused to reduce disease incidence.iii

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“…anthracis dissemination is referred to as the Trojan horse model (52,60). In this model, spores are phagocytosed by resident phagocytes and then transported to the draining lymph node where they germinate and grow.…”

Section: Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Little Goes a Long Way: How Circulating Bacillus Anthracis Lethal Toxin Prevents the Neutrophil Response to Infection

Weiner¹

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Bacillus anthracis is a Gram-positive spore-forming bacterium that is the causative agent of the disease anthrax, which is traditionally a disease of grazing livestock and a zoonosis of humans that work closely with infected animals. B. anthracis has become of more interest in modern times due to the ease by which it is weaponized for biological warfare or terrorism. Anthrax can be contracted through several routes of exposure: by inhalation, cutaneously through breaks in the skin, and by ingestion. Of the exposure routes, inhalation anthrax elicits the highest mortality rate, while cutaneaous infection has the lowest. The cause of B. anthracis high mortality rates is attributed to two main virulence factors, a tripartite exotoxin and a gamma-linked poly-glutamic acid capsule. The tripartite AB exotoxin consists of a receptor-binding translocase subunit, protective antigen (PA), and two enzymatic subunits, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor My PhD would not be possible without the help and support of many people. I would first like to thank the one most directly responsible for my training at UVA, my mentor Dr. Ian Glomski. Not only did he provide excellent guidance, he also exhibited an inordinate amount of patience in the face of my many questions and growing pains during my time in lab. However, Ian was not the only one in lab. I made great use out of the encyclopedic knowledge of literature and techniques possessed by my fellow graduate student, David Lowe. And nothing would have gotten done without the hard work of our technicians

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Bacillus anthracisDissemination through Hosts

Cited by 4 publications

References 133 publications

Pediatric Anthrax Clinical Management

Pediatric Anthrax Clinical Management

Opening moves: early events in anthrax pathogenesis and their consequences for dissemination

A Little Goes a Long Way: How Circulating Bacillus Anthracis Lethal Toxin Prevents the Neutrophil Response to Infection

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