"Good" Bacteria gone bad?

[reyam200]

Hey. i have a small question.

 

Has there been any cases in which the "good" bacteria in our system turned against us and caused septicemia?(i think thats the word)

 

Like the bacteria in the colon, it helps to further process wastes eliminating toxins, but also as a bi-product it produces methane. could this bacteria "malfunction" and stop processing toxins? also, how would this effect the PH balance of our body?

 

Biology isnt my best subject, i hope someone can explain this in detail.

[Skye]

Septicemia is where you have bacteria in the blood. It generally happens through wounds, so any serious injury to the colon could result result in septicemia. This then leads to sepsis, where the white blood cells go nuts and your organs start failing.

 

I'm not sure about the other part of your question. The useful functions of bacteria are generally essential for their survival too, so I'm not sure that they can malfunction and survive.

[reyam200]

Ok, so those toxins are their food.

 

i was just thinking of it like that blood disease(or bone marrow disease) that causes the white blood cells to start attacking healthy tissue. its a cancer if I'm not mistaken. where the bacteria starts attacking the cells instead of processing the toxins like its meant to. has that ever happened?

 

if so it would have to mutate against a symbiosis that has existed for eons. so its probably so unlikely that its not even considered a problem.

[ydoaPs]

i was just thinking of it like that blood disease(or bone marrow disease) that causes the white blood cells to start attacking healthy tissue. its a cancer if I'm not mistaken.

Sounds like an autoimmune disease.

[ecoli]

gangrene is caused when normally harmless bacteria gets into wounds.

[jorge1907]

Each member of our normal flora has the potential to cause infection/disease under the right circumstances - usually some kind of compromise of the host - immune compromise like AIDs, physical compromise such as a wound. Even the wimpy Malassezia.

 

No Septicemia is not just bacteremia (bacteria in the blood stream) - it's that WITH systemic inflammatory response.

 

Not aware "toxins" breakdown is a major function of bacteria in the gut. What toxins do you mean?

[Psycho]

The only way I could think anything like that would happen under normal circumstances is the symbiotic bacteria in the gut, conjugating with foreign bacteria and transferring resistance plasmids, however you could never prove that is what caused it the infection, or that is where the resistant strain of the bacteria came from.

 

If you have "toxins" in your gut I think it would most likely cause any bacteria to lysis.

[annea]

What about infectious endocarditis and septic/infectious arthritis.

 

 

[jimmydasaint]

E coli is another example that comes to mind, which is not pathogenic normally, but, under certain circumstances (including the presence of a virulence-inducing plasmid) can adhere to and invade cells.

 

Molecular mechanisms of Escherichia coli pathogenicity

 

Matthew A. Croxen & B. Brett Finlay

 

Abstract

 

Escherichia coli is a remarkable and diverse organism. This normally harmless commensal needs only to acquire a combination of mobile genetic elements to become a highly adapted pathogen capable of causing a range of diseases, from gastroenteritis to extraintestinal infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream and central nervous system. The worldwide burden of these diseases is staggering, with hundreds of millions of people affected annually. Eight E. coli pathovars have been well characterized, and each uses a large arsenal of virulence factors to subvert host cellular functions to potentiate its virulence. In this Review, we focus on the recent advances in our understanding of the different pathogenic mechanisms that are used by various E. coli pathovars and how they cause disease in humans.

Link to Review Abstract and Figures Edited June 3, 2011 by jimmydasaint

[CharonY]

Horizontal gene transfer is a major element in the acquisition of pathogenicity functions. Many virulence factors are encoded in so-called pathogenicity islands, that have been acquired by HGT. For instance Shigella is considered a split from E. coli due to the horizontal acquisition of virulence factors.

[Magdalene]

I agree with jorge but what concern pH: many bacteria and fungus lives on our skin and inside us. In many times their protect us against pathogenic and give us constant stimulation for the production of antibodies Our pH in different parts of our body is a value which determinate specific bacteria. Its normaly when we take f.e.: antibiotics or another drugs it might cause that the pH balance is upset. Then another microorganisms could colonize place where normally they could not exist in that abundance. It might cause non specific infections.