Ehrlichia and Anaplasma

1,322views

00:00 / 00:00

High Yield Notes

9 pages

Flashcards

Ehrlichia and Anaplasma

of complete

Questions

USMLE® Step 1 style questions USMLE

of complete

A 29-year-old man presents to the clinic with several days of easy bruising, fever, headache, and a rash on his trunk. His symptoms developed after hiking in Tennessee one week ago. Bloodwork shows low hemoglobin, leukocytes, and platelets. Light microscopy of a peripheral blood smear with Wright stain shows berry-shaped inclusions within several monocytes. Which of the following pathogens is the most likely cause of his symptoms?  

Memory Anchors and Partner Content

Transcript

Watch video only

Ehrlichia and Anaplasma are two genera of Gram-negative pleomorphic bacteria, which means they can take different shapes - round like a coccus, or coccobacillary, which means somewhere between a spherical coccus and a rod-like bacillus.

The most common species that cause disease in humans are Ehrlichia chaffeensis, which causes a disease called human monocytic ehrlichiosis, or HME, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which causes a disease called human granulocytic anaplasmosis, or HGA.

Now, Ehrlichia and Anaplasma have a thin peptidoglycan layer, so they don’t retain the crystal violet dye during Gram staining.

Instead, like any other Gram-negative bacteria, they stain pink with safranin dye.

Both are non-motile, non-spore forming, and obligate intracellular which means they can survive only inside cells.

Finally, Ehrlichia and Anaplasma don’t grow on routine culture media and they need to be cultivated in vitro in different cell lines.

So, Ehrlichia chaffeensis can be isolated in DH82 canine histiocytic cell line and Anaplasma phagocytophilum can be isolated in promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cell line.

Now, Ehrlichia and Anaplasma enter circulation following a tick bite and once inside the body, they infect circulating leukocytes.

Ehrlichia primarily targets monocytes and macrophages, and it infects them using tandem repeat proteins, or TRP.

These bacterial proteins bind to proteins found on the surface of the cell, and they induce phagocytosis - so basically, they make the cell gobble up the bacteria.

Anaplasma, on the other hand, primarily targets neutrophils, and infects them with the help of a P-selectin glycoprotein which binds on the P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1, or PSGL-1 found on the surface of neutrophils.

This activates an intracellular pathway that leads to reorganization of cellular actin which leads to phagocytosis, allowing Anaplasma to enter the cell.

Once inside the cell, both Ehrlichia and Anaplasma live in an early endosome, which normally merge with lysosomes to kill invading bacteria.

But, in order to merge with lysosomes, this early endosome needs to become a late endosome.

So, the early endosome contains a protein called rab5A, which is involved in the recruitment of rab7A and the maturation of these compartments into late endosomes.

However, Ehrlichia and Anaplasma don’t let that happen, so it stops the production of rab5A.

How they do that is still unknown, but the end result is that the early endosome can’t become a late endosome, so it doesn’t merge with the lysosome.

Summary

Ehrlichia and Anaplasma are bacteria that are transmitted by ticks. Ehrlichia causes ehrlichiosis, whereas Anaplasma causes anaplasmosis. Ehrlichiosis and Ehrlichiosis present with similar symptoms, which include headache, fever, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. Most people who get infected with these bacteria do not have any symptoms, but in some cases these bacteria can cause serious illness. Ehrlichiosis and Ehrlichiosis are diagnosed with PCR or serology tests, and are treated with antibiotics.

Elsevier

Copyright © 2024 Elsevier, its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Cookies are used by this site.

USMLE® is a joint program of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). COMLEX-USA® is a registered trademark of The National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, Inc. NCLEX-RN® is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. Test names and other trademarks are the property of the respective trademark holders. None of the trademark holders are endorsed by nor affiliated with Osmosis or this website.

RELX