PART I : OBJECTIVES
Establishment of Infectious Diseases:
 Understand the basic concepts of host-bacteria interaction events that occur during
infectious disease.
 Know the basic components of bacterial pathogenicity
 virulence factors;
 invasiveness/toxigenesis
 Know the basic components of innate immunity against bacterial infection
 Review of Koch’s postulates: implication for the study of host-bacteria
interaction/pathogenesis
Biology of Bacteria:
 Understand the basic structure of Gram +, Gram-, Acid Fast, Cell wall deficient bacteria and
S layers.
 Appreciate the relationship of cell/wall membrane and appendage structure to
pathogenesis (Braun lipoprotein and blebbing, capsules, LPS, pili)
 Discussion of persistent forms of bacteria and relevance to pathogenesis
 Anaerobiosis
 Basic bacteriological procedures
 Understand the relative abundance, distribution and public health importance of microflora
colonizing the human body
Microbiome
 Understand that members of the normal microflora can be pathogenic
 Describe representative predisposing conditions of the body that may lead to
disease by otherwise commensal organisms
 Highlight representative disease syndromes with a etiologic agents that are
otherwise non-pathogens
 Understand the concept that a disease syndrome can manifest due to a shift in microflora
rather than a single etiologic agent
 Example: Bacterial vaginosis
 Describe how antibiotic therapy influences the human microflora
Classical Approaches to study bacteria
 Discussion of the procedures whereby one can identify, isolate and purify biologically active
molecules. Examples will include amongst several:
 Parameters of bacterial growth to achieve optimal product
 Primary isolation procedures
 Chromatographic procedures
 Electrophoretic procedures
 Immunological procedures
 Learn to collectively develop approaches to obtain the goals desired.
Genetic Approaches to study bacteria
 Overview of bacterial genetic materials
 Bacterial genetic information flow
 Exchange of bacterial DNA and medical implications
 Regulation of gene expression
 Genetic approaches to studying bacterial pathogenesis
Toxins and Secretion Systems
 Understand bacterial toxins.
 Toxicity and mode of action of exotoxins and endotoxins.
 Bacterial factors-induced sepsis
 Understand bacterial secretory systems
 Type I-VI secretory systems
 Properties of T3SS, T4SS and T6SS
 T3SS virulence strategy
 Application of combined techniques to design the role of secretion protein in host cell
attachment and entry
Host-Bacterial Interactions
 Know steps of bacterial pathogenesis
 Appreciate that there is a large range of adhesins and basic types
 Bacteria utilize different invasion strategies
 Bacteria utilize host cytoskeleton to enter, survive and move within the cell
 Bacteria utilize host signaling pathways to survive intracellularly and evade host immune
response
 Realize the myriad of ways one bacterium can foil the host.
 Understand potential ways infection with a microorganism can lead to cancer
 Link with a chronic infection
 General understanding of experimental approaches employed to understand bacterial
pathogenesis/ carcinogenesis
Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance
 To delineate antibiotics by their
 Spectrum of activity (broad or narrow)
 Mechanism of action
 Organism’s mechanism(s) of resistance
Determinants of Bacterial Pathogenesis
 Identify how select bacterial determinants result in different clinical outcomes.
 Understand potential clinical manifestations from bacterial infections that target leukocytes
compared to mucosal pathogens.
 Identify selected virulence factors of bacteria, and how these factors contribute to
differential pathogenesis of human pathogens.