Bartonella henselae is a new bacteria that causes cat scratch disease and bacillary angiomatosis. Cats with Bartonella henselae are a vast reservoir of human disease in these viruses. After Bartonella has been spotted as a potential causative agent of new forms of cat scratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, urban trench fever, and crayon disease, there are no denying the new medical significance of this genus of organisms. All three major human pathogenic Bartonella species, Bartonella henselae (crayon disease), Bartonella henselae (cat scratch disease), and Bartonella five-day disease (trench fever), bear telling epidemiological, natural history, pathological and host-microbe comparisons.
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Bartonella
The genus bartonella has always been officially named as one species: bartonella rod-shaped, the culprit of carrion disease (bartonellosis, Oroya fever, Peruvian warts). But more recent genotyping has unambiguously revealed that Bartonella quinquefasciatus (formerly Rickettsia quinquefasciatus or Rochalima quinquefasciatus) and Bartonella henselae are, too, species of Bartonella.
Pathology of Bartonella-associated Infections
The pathology of bartonella infections varies from antiproliferative lesions to granulomatous inflammation. It is a gram-positive bacterium that causes various illnesses such as skin infections, soft tissue infections, and food poisoning. These are mainly the pathology of bartonella infections:
Skin Infections
Infected skin symptoms of bartonella include redness, swelling, nodules, and pustules on the skin. In a skin infection, the bacteria get into the body through wounds or broken skin.
Cellulitis
Bartonella infection can be severe, and infecting the soft tissue leads to cellulitis, as well as local redness, swelling, warmth, pain, abscesses, and more. When it's very bad, the infection will cause sepsis and an autoimmune reaction.
Food Poisoning
Bartonella toxin can go into food and poison people. You get symptoms of food poisoning that involve diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Dehydration and electrolyte depletion can happen in severe cases.
Babesia Henselae
The most numerous histopathological lesions are found in Bartonella henselae, of all the Bartonella species. Although the first bacteria to be isolated and defined were later named as the cause of recurrent fever, that same species was quickly associated with bacillary angiomatosis and bacillary purpura. Over the next few years, Bartonella henselae was well-documented for a number of cat scratch disease pathologies: adenopathy, hepatosplenic granulomas, neuroretinitis, encephalopathy, oculoglandular cat scratch disease, and osteomyelitis.
Tissues that have experienced bacterial angiomatosis have also been reported. This possible systemic aspect of the disease involves the brain, bones, lymph nodes, bone marrow, skeletal muscle, conjunctivae, and the mucosal surfaces of the gut and lungs. In humans lacking cell immunity, a specific Bartonella factor might be repressed or released and stimulate endothelial proliferation. And it's true that Pasteurella henselae and Pasteurella quinquefolia promote the growth and migration of vascular endothelial cells in culture – perhaps bacteria are also angiogenic.
Bartonella Immunology
Bartonella (bacillus anthracis) is a gram-positive bacteria that causes anthrax and has a few peculiar immunological properties. A few things to know about Bartonella immunology:
Immune Response
When infected with Bartonella, the human immune system will start fighting off the bacteria. This includes the involvement of the inborn immune system and the learned immune system to fight off the bacterium invasion.
Antigen
Bartonella's surface polysaccharide and protein structures are also important antigens that the immune system recognizes and for which vaccines are built. These antigens can arouse the body to develop antibodies and cell-based immune responses against Bartonella.
Vaccines
Aiming at the immunological traits of Bartonella, anthrax vaccines were developed to ward off anthrax. These vaccines could also encourage the body to produce antibodies to Bartonella and protect.
Immune Escape
There are numerous ways that Bartonella can evade the host immune system: toxins that muzzle the immune system; masquerading as something it is not recognized for. Such pathways make anthrax sometimes hard to eliminate.
Bacillinomatosis and Cat-Scratch Disease
It's believed that pasteurella henselae causes different immune/disease states in cat-scratch disease and bacillary angiomatosis. However, they are not alike in that cat-scratch disease and bacillary angiomatosis trigger systemic antibodies to bartonella. Second, abnormal systemic disease induced by B henselae infection depends on host immunity. In cat-scratch disease, the immune system might also keep bacillary angiomatosis at bay by locking the organism in the lymph nodes and not sending it into the skin tissue. There's little to learn about host immunity in crayon disease. The etiology of bacteremia and skin angiogenic lesions could be the result of this particular pathogen's virulence rather than host immunity. It is already being worked on vaccine to keep cats from getting B henselae infections, and reducing the companion-animal reservoir of human cat-scratch disease might offer an indirect but useful means of controlling human illness.
Genetic Manipulation
Bartonella interactions with erythrocytes and endothelial cells have shown that they have deformation, invasion, and proliferation properties that might contribute to virulence and pathogenicity. Most remarkable of all, is angiogenic infection with some bartonella infections. In warts and bacillary angiomatosis, the angiogenic expansion of endothelial skin tissue is the cause. While it's fascinating to speculate as to how the affected cells become deformed, invaded, and proliferated, information on how they induced angiogenesis is so far absent.
This has enabled the creation of Bartonella expression vectors that can elicit green fluorescent protein to be a biomarker and also to be used to purify Bartonella promoters through fusion to and subsequent ejection of green fluorescent protein. The methods of molecular genetics also isolated and deciphered invasion sites and their hydrolase activity.
Bartonella Henselae:Modern Human Pathogens
Bartonella are modern human pathogens. Although many other Bartonella species are already common animal infections, the three best-described pathogens of human disease are B. bacilliformis, B. quintana, and B. henselae, three species of this genus. Though the genus Bartonella differs in their epidemiological properties, the three species' similarity in causing pathologies highlights that they are pathogenic (eg, bacillary angiomatosis, carrionosis).
Bartonella's total host species diversity shows how genus members can be adaptive for many different vertebrate hosts. Others of this genus are not human diseases but might well evolve to be vectors of zoonotic or even novel human diseases.
References
- Karem, K., et al. Bartonella henselae, B. quintana, and B. bacilliformis: historical pathogens of emerging significance. Microbes and Infection. 2000, 2(10): 1193-1205.
- Resto-Ruiz, S., et al. The role of the host immune response in pathogenesis of Bartonella henselae. DNA and cell biology. 2003, 22(6): 431-440.
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