why are mycobacteria hard to kill?
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Scientists have assumed that mycobacteria are so hard to kill because dormant cells exist even in patients with active disease and these cells are far less susceptible to antibiotics than metabolically active bacteria.
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As a rule of thumb (which has exceptions), Gram-negative bacteria are more dangerous as disease organisms, because their outer membrane is often hidden by a capsule or slime layer which hides the antigens of the cell and so acts as "camouflage" - the human body recognises a foreign body by its antigens; if they are ...
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Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria that are spread through the air from person to person. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. People infected with TB bacteria who are not sick can take medication to prevent TB disease from developing in the future.
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It's difficult to penetrate, which gives gram-negative bacteria extra protection. Gram-positive bacteria don't have this feature. Because of this difference, gram-negative bacteria are harder to kill.
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They are very hard to breed in captivity and are vulnerable to a number of respiratory diseases. To make matters worse, they're easy to kill by humans, often for sport, because they freeze when pursued. Some animal behaviorists think this is because the cats think they can't be seen against the sand.
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The AIDS virus is also hard to destroy because it tends to infect the very cells designed to destroy it: a kind of white blood cell called a CD4 lymphocyte. These types of cells can be activated to fight pathogens, but can also lie inactive.
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Mycobacteria contain mycolic acids and have a high GC content in their DNA. A Gram stain cannot penetrate the waxy cell wall. The hydrophobic lipids cause the Gram stain to give no staining or a variable result.
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Left untreated,TB can kill approximately one half of patients within five years and produce significant morbidity (illness) in others. Inadequate therapy for TB can lead to drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis that are even more difficult to treat. Not everyone who inhales the germ develops active TB disease.
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Clostridium difficile bacteria are very hard to fight for two reasons. One, they release a toxin that, once in the body, cannot be cleared up by drugs. Second, they release spores that are not killed by hand sanitizer or antibiotics and that can lurk in hospital nooks and crannies, or inside the body.
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The key difference between mycoplasma and mycobacterium is the presence of a cell wall. Mycobacterium is a genus of bacteria where all species possess a thick, protective and waxy cell wall. Mycoplasma is another unique bacterial genus in which all species do not contain a cell wall around their cell membrane.
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-cytotoxic T cells have receptors specific for a particular microbe and thus kill only target body cells infected with one particular type of microbe. -releases granzymes, protein‐digesting enzymes that trigger apoptosis. -Once the infected cell is destroyed, the released microbes are killed by phagocytes.
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Some bacterial cells are resistant to a variety of antimicrobials because they actively pump the drugs out of the cell. ... To be effective, an antimicrobial agent must be more toxic to the patient than the pathogen. c. Selective toxicity takes advantage of metabolic differences between host and pathogen.
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Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a type of bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It's spread when a person with active TB disease in their lungs coughs or sneezes and someone else inhales the expelled droplets, which contain TB bacteria.
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Tuberculosis is making a comeback worldwide—and is quickly becoming drug-resistant. Tuberculosis (TB), a curable disease, is rearing its ugly head again, and because it's becoming resistant to antibiotics, it's rapidly emerging as a major global threat.
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Both fall under antimicrobials, a general category of compounds that kills microbes (bacteria, fungi, and other pathogens). An antibacterial is an antibiotic, but as the name implies, it can only target bacteria. Antibiotics, on the other hand, can kill or keep pathogens from growing.
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Many people with TB infection never develop TB disease. In most people who breathe in TB bacteria and become infected, the body is able to fight the bacteria to stop them from growing. The bacteria become inactive, but they remain alive in the body and can become active later. This is called latent TB infection.
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The TB bacteria will grow and you will remain sick for a longer time . The bacteria may also become resistant to the medicines you are taking . You may need new, different medicines to kill the TB bacteria if the old medicines no longer work .