NSC 211

Medical Microbiology
and Parasitology

Nafi’u Lawal (DVM, MSc, PhD)

Week 6 Lecture Session

National Open
University of Nigeria National Open University Of Nigeria
Learning Objectives
• Know the types of associations that exist between
microbes
• Identify their examples
• Know the types of parasites and hosts
• Know the types of Nematodes that infect humans
• Identify their basic life cycles
The types of associations

Symbiosis
• Mutualism
• Commensalism
• Parasitism
Non-symbiotic
• Synergism
• Antagonism
Mutualism
• Here the associates may or
may not be dependent on
each other for their existence
• Both benefit when they are
associated
Example: Sea anemones on the backs of crabs
• Both gain from the
association (the
anemone providing
some food for the crab,
which in turn gives
extra motility to the
anemone)
• Both can survive on
their own
Commensalism

• None is dependent on the

other for its existence,
only one benefits from the
association, the other is
unaffected
An example of this, found in humans, are
the nonpathogenic obligate commensal
protozoa such as the amoebae Entamoeba
gingivalis, commonly found in the mouth,
feeding on bacteria, dead epithelial cells
and food particles SEM micrograph showing different microflora
found
In sheep’s rumen. Source: Foundations in
Microbiology (2002)
Parasitism
• One of the associates live either
partly or wholly at the expense of the
other associate, the other partner
(the host organism) not gaining
anything from the association
• May cause extreme pathology to the
host
• It is carried out by many organisms
such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa
(endoparasites), and various
metazoan groups mostly helminths
(endoparasites) and arthropods
(ectoparasites)
Non-symbiotic

• Synergism
• Interrelationship between
two or more free-living
organisms that benefits
them but is not necessary
for their survival
• Together, the participants
cooperate to produce a
result that none of them
could do alone
Antagonism
• Association between free-living species that
arises when members of a community
compete
• In this interaction, one microbe secretes
chemical substances into the surrounding
environment that inhibit or destroy another
microbe in the same habitat
• The first microbe may gain a competitive
advantage by increasing the space and
nutrients available to it
• Interactions of this type are common in the
soil, where mixed communities often
compete for space and food
• Antibiosis
Several antibiotics
Bacteriocins-harmful to other bacteria in the surrounding
Host
• Definitive
Adult parasite is found
Sexual cycle occur

• Intermediate
Larvae are mostly found
Asexual reproduction usually occur here
• Accidental
Parasites don’t develop here
When infection occur, it can complete its life cycle
• Permissive
Allows growth and development of parasite
• Non-permissive
A dead end, no life cycle completion
No further spread
• Paratenic
Parasites develop but remain incomplete until effectively transmitted to
definitive host
• Reservoir
Where the agent fully develop and get transmitted to susceptible
individuals
The parasite is always found in association with this type of host
 Nematodes
• Enterobius vermicularis- Ascaris lumbricoides-Large
Pinworm Human Roundworm
• The infection is extremely • More than 1500 M annual
common infections with 210 M
• Western Europe & North being asymptomatic
America Trichuris Trichiuria-LHR
• Annually over 200M are • 1300 M cases annually
infected with 133 M cases
• More in Children asymptomatically
 Hookworms & Filarial worms
• Necator americanus in the Lymphatic filariasis
tropics and subtropics • Wuchereria bancrofti-106
• Ancylostoma duodenale in M
the tropics and subtropics • Brugia malayi-12.5 M
• 1200 M infections annually • Onchocerca volvulus-River
with 100 M being blindness-18 M
symptomatic
• Dracunculus medinensis-
Guinea worm-100 K
Nematodes
• General features • The alimentary canal is complete from
• Cylindrical, body wall with outer cuticle, mouth surrounded by bristles (sensory
thin hypodermis and musculature papillae) attached to an esophagus
• Cuticle sometimes has ridges called alae • Males are smaller than females and
and a bursa at the posterior end that have curved posterior end with spicules
male uses to grasp female for mating and bursa (sex organs) either singly or
together
• Hypodermis bulges into the body cavity
forming 4 cords: dorsal, ventral and two • There are two testes, seminal vesicles
lateral that leads to cloaca
• Somatic musculature is a single layer of • Female’s ovary is continuous with an
smooth muscles lying beneath the oviduct and tubular uterus
hypodermis • Copulation is necessary for fertilization
• Pseudocolon is the space between to occur except in Strongyloides where
unfertilized egg develop to an individual
muscle layer and viscera
(parthenogenetic)
(a) Adult worms. The female is larger; the
male has a hooked end
(b) A microscopic view of A. lumbricoides
ova from a fecal sample
 Life Cycles
• In cycle A, the worm develops in intestine; egg is
released with feces into environment; eggs are
ingested by new host and hatch in intestine
(examples: Ascaris, Trichuris)
• In cycle B, the worm matures in intestine; eggs
are released with feces; larvae hatch and
develop in environment; infection occurs through
skin penetration by larvae (example: hookworms)
• In cycle C, the adult matures in human intestine;
eggs are released into environment; eggs are
eaten by grazing animals; larval forms encyst in
tissue; humans eating animal flesh are infected
(example: Taenia)
• In cycle D, eggs are released from human;
humans are infected through ingestion or direct
penetration by larval phase (examples:
Opisthorchis and Schistosoma)
• In cycle E, the human is definitive host and
carries larval form in blood; insect vector is
intermediate host that picks up and transmits
larvae through bite (examples: Wuchereria and
Onchocerca).
Life cycle continue

• parasite undergoes moulting from L1 to the • filarial worms are viviparous and the
adult L5 L1 larvae infect intermediate hosts
• The infective larvae is the L3 in most through the bites of arthropods
nematodes (but not all) except in Ascarids, vectors
(Ascaris lumbricoides) and the pinworms
where L1 larvae, or eggs containing L1 or L2 • Strongyloides stercoralis uses L1
larvae that are the infective stage larvae to cause infection through
• The L3, L4 and L5 larvae in all species faeces
undergoes migration within the body of the
definitive host as it matures into the adult
• The L3 larvae of the viviparous
parasite Trichinela Spiralis encyst in muscle
• Migration usually occur via the bloodstream where the infection occur by ingestion
or lymphatic system to the heart, lungs, of undercooked contaminated meat
trachea, and then to the intestine • L3 larvae of hookworms and other
• Oviposition allows the parasite to leave the related nematodes are directly
definitive host as thin walled eggs in the invasive
faeces
Hydatid cysts from the lung. These fluid- A patient with disseminated
filled spheres are also known as bladder Strongyloides infection. Trails under the
worms skin indicate the migration tracks of the
worms
The cycle of trichinosis
(a) The infective stage is
larvae encysted in
animal muscle
(b)When ingested, the
cyst hatches and
matures in the
intestinal lining
(c) Offspring of adult
worms burrow through
the intestine and
penetrate the
circulation
(d)They eventually form
cysts in skeletal
muscle that can
remain for years. Inset
shows a biopsy of
human skeletal
muscle infected with
the coiled larvae of
Trichinella spiralis. (d
inset) Source:
Koneman et al.,
(a) The appearance of a
larva in a blood smear
(b)Pronounced
elephantiasis in a
Costa Rican woman.
Source: Foundation in
Microbiology (2005)