Pathogens: How Viruses and Bacteria Infect Our Bodies

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How Viruses and Bacteria Infect Our Bodies

Pathology is the scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences. It is also known as pathobiology. The word pathogen was devised about 1880 and was compounded from patho, meaning disease, and gen, indicating a producer: hence, a disease producer. The compounded term pathogen means an agent that produces a disease. Disease is a process (verb), not a state (noun). Every disease is a race between pathogen trying to gain a foothold and host defenses trying to defeat pathogen. Pathogen is most commonly used to refer to infectious microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Many of these pathogens can make us very sick and some can cause death.

Most of the microorganisms that surround us do not cause illness. This is in part due to their lack of specific genetic information that would allow them to cause us harm, but is mostly due to their inability to circumvent the powerful immune systems that most humans and animals have. The ability to infect a human or animal requires a significant number of genes (called virulence factors) that help the microbe attach to its victim and combat the immune system of the host.

For pathogens to be successful and cause disease they must be able to overcome certain challenges to survive. They must (1) find a host, (2) attach and colonize, (3) invade and evade the host's defenses, which causes damage to the host, and (4) be able to survive outside of the host. (Read more here.)

Viruses are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They can't multiply on their own, so they have to invade a 'host' cell and take over its machinery in order to be able to make more virus particles.

Viruses consist of genetic materials (DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protective coat of protein. They are capable of latching onto cells and getting inside them.

The cells of the mucous membranes, such as those lining the respiratory passages that we breathe through, are particularly open to virus attacks because they are not covered by protective skin.

Bacteria are organisms made up of just one cell. They are capable of multiplying by themselves, as they have the power to divide. Their shapes vary, and doctors use these characteristics to separate them into groups.

Bacteria exist everywhere, inside and on our bodies. Most of them are completely harmless, and some of them are very useful. But some bacteria can cause diseases, either because they end up in the wrong place in the body, or simply because they are 'designed' to invade us.

For an organism to cause a disease, it must first find its way into a suitable site upon its host. The method by which an infectious agent moves from a source to a susceptible healthy host is called transmission. Usually each specific infectious agent is spread by only one or a few mechanisms, which can occur by direct or indirect methods.

Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. For example, someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, or a kitchen glass. Some viruses can live for hours -- or in some cases, weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. They then enter our body generally through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Pathogens can also gain entrance to the body through open wounds or lesions in the skin.

Another common means of infection can occur indirectly through what is known as vector-borne transmission where pathogens are transmitted through an intermediary such as animals or insects(rodents, bats, pets, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, etc.). Bites or contact from the infected intermediary can transfer the disease to humans or other animals.

Other pathogens are spread by airborne transmission. In this type of transmission, pathogens spread with aerosols and enter an individual, usually through the respiratory tract. Airborne transmission is distinguished from droplet spread in that the particles can remain in the air for long periods of time and travel distances much greater than one meter. Airborne particles that contain pathogens can be small pieces of dust or tiny droplets of liquid that are light enough to be blown about by air currents. While present in the air, a significant number of pathogens may become inactivated due to desiccation and exposure to sunlight. The degree of resistance to these forces is, of course, dependent upon the pathogen. Examples of pathogens capable of this method of transmission include Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Hanta virus.

Approximately one half of the body's proteins are composed of collagen, elastin, and other connective tissue molecules. Collagen stability is very important for the healthy function of soft tissues in the body. These tissues build our blood vessels, skin, cartilage, and our body’s organs.

All human cells are surrounded by collagen fibers and connective tissue. It is the molecular glue that binds the body together. In order to grow and expand, healthy cells need to break down this extra-cellular barrier that confines them. This process is essential for life, and for this reason cells produce and secrete various enzymes that digest connective tissue components, including collagen and elastin.

It is important that these enzymes, called matrix metalloproteinases (or MMPs), be regulated by sets of activators and inhibitors so that the integrity of the connective tissue is never compromised. It is the breakdown of the connective tissue that the most destructive pathogenic agents use to spread disease.

Once on or near the host, the pathogen attaches by a specific molecular reaction, in which compatible protein complexes -- some on the host and some on the microbe -- recognize and bind to one another. After entering the host many pathogenic bacterium use appendages known as pili that stretch out from the prokaryotic cell into the environment. These appendages, or phili, are largely made up of one or a few proteins, with special-function proteins occurring intermittently along the tip of the phili. The proteins present at the tip will recognize a receptor on certain host cells and allow attachment to the cell. This receptor is either a protein or polysaccharide present on the surface of the host cell, and the reaction between pilus and receptor is a specific molecular match with the end of the pilus binding to and fitting tightly into the receptor. These reactions can be very strong so that it is difficult to remove the microbe from the host cell once bound.

Many of these pathogens produce toxins known as exotoxins. These exotoxins are proteins produced by the pathogen that have a detrimental effect on the host. Several exotoxins are the most lethal poisons known. After binding to the host cell the pili can serve as bridges between the pathogens and host cell cytoplasm, allowing the delivery of toxins directly into the host. Use of a pilus in this manner allows direct targeting of toxins at an adjacent host cell, thus maximizing the effect of the toxin to the area near the pathogen and surrounding connective tissue.

As a pathogen, growth on the host is the goal. If the toxin ends up rapidly killing off the host, the time for growth in the host is short. Microbes that produce the most lethal toxins must be very contagious so that they quickly find new hosts and/or are capable of living in environments other than the host. Toxins also tend to be very antigenic and raise a vigorous immune response.

Strength of soft connective tissues is very important. The breakdown of connective tissue by invasive enzymes and exotoxins accompanies pathology (spread of disease) and once excessive disintegration occurs, viruses and other pathogens can easily invade adjacent cells. Disintegration of collagen and connective tissue are the primary mechanisms by which pathogens invade and spread to other organs.

Pathogens produce a cocktail of enzymes that allow penetration into various tissues of the body. These enzymes often dissolve tissues or destroy cells that would otherwise block invasion. The most potent of these is the enzyme neuramindas (N), which is located on the surface of of viruses. Another invasive enzyme is hyaluronidase. This enzyme is especially common and digests hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid serves as the glue that cements mammalian host cells together in connective tissue. Its destruction weakens the barriers against penetration of the pathogen and allows deeper access into tissues. Pathogens may also produce enzymes that depolymerize macromolecules; these include proteases, nucleases, lipases and sugar-degrading enzymes. These not only have the effect of weakening tissue and allowing further penetration, but they also release nutrients that the pathogen can use for growth. These enzymes work like MMPs to break down the connective tissue surrounding human cells.

In many cases, the exotoxins produced attack immune cells and prevent them from destroying the pathogen. Exotoxins are also thought of as invasive enzymes, since they damage cells that may try to prevent the spread of the microbe.

Once inside the cell, the virus 'reprograms' the genetic software in the cell core to allow its own multiplication. The infected cell now continuously produces more viruses as well as the biological 'scissors' (enzymes used for the decomposition of collagen) needed for their spread from cell to cell.

Millions of viruses are then released from the infected cells. With the help of the collagen-destroying enzymes, the viruses spread through the connective tissue to invade other cells.

In his Cellular Health Series book "Cancer", Dr. Matthias Rath documents his scientific discovery that vitamin C, along with the amino acid L-lysine, are very powerful natural inhibitors of collagen-digesting enzymes found on viruses and other pathogens. The production of connective tissue is also regulated mainly by these same inhibitors.

Unfortunately, humans are one of only four species of mammals that cannot produce their own vitamin C. Therefore, humans are naturally deficient in this vital nutrient, which leads to the slow disintegration of the body's connective tissue (collagen-matrix). Without strong connective tissue, and sufficient amounts of Vitamin C and L-lysine as inhibitors, viruses and other pathogens are allowed almost unimpeded access in navigating from cell to cell and can quickly spread through the body.

Advanced Scientific Health (ASH) provides its members a formula that is compounded to combat the spread of infectious agents that cause disease in the body. The formula is also vital to the rebuilding of connective tissue in the body that has been decomposed through years of Vitamin C deficiency, and also facilitates the regrowth of strong, healthy connective tissue.

Research has shown that Vitamin C and the amino acid L-lysine are very powerful inhibitors of the digestive enzymes used by viruses and bacteria to break down the soft collagen connective tissue between cells. Since humans do not make their own vitamin C, we are susceptible to diseases caused by millions of viruses and bacteria that cohabit our planet.

In his research, Nobel Prize winner and beloved scientist Linus Pauling calculated that humans require the amount of vitamin C that we would make if we were as other animals who do produce their own vitamin C. He suggested that according to our size, we should have at least 10 grams of vitamin C for every 175 pounds of body weight. Other studies since Dr. Pauling's groundbreaking work have shown that about 1.5 to 3 grams is enough vitamin C to give optimal protection. This amount of vitamin C neutralizes the digestive enzymes used by viruses and bacteria to break down connective tissue and prohibits them from moving from cell to cell. When they are released from an infected cell, they become hopelessly trapped in the collagen tissue and are destroyed by the body's immune system; and they are then escorted from the body through natural elimination processes.

Mineral Ascorbates vs Ascorbic Acid

Because it is inexpensive to produce, most of the vitamin C products purchased in health food stores and other retail outlets is ascorbic acid, the chemical form of pure vitamin C. However, ascorbic acid can cause extreme stomach discomfort when taken orally in dosages over one gram and is not easily used by the body.

The Advanced Scientific Health (ASH) vitamin C formula is composed of four mineral ascorbates and other nutrients your body needs. Mineral ascorbates are the type of vitamin C your body would make if it made its own vitamin C: and they are easily tolerated orally in very high dosages. They are Magnesium Ascorbate, Sodium Ascorbate, Calcium Ascorbate, and Potassium Ascorbate. The ASH formula also has a very generous amount of L-lysine. One teaspoon contains about 1 and 1/2 grams of vitamin C.

Don't Make Your Vitamin C Compete With Sugar

Many people, especially diabetics, are not absorbing vitamin C from their blood. Why? Because vitamin C is structurally similar to glucose and the vitamin has a short half-life in the bloodstream. It should concern medical professionals that vitamin C and glucose molecules share the same insulin-mediated tunneling mechanism into cells through the membrane. Therefore, since all nutrients enter the cells through the cell membrane, it is likely that they must compete with glucose (sugar) to enter the cell.

In the 1970s, Emeritus Professor John T. A. Ely (University of Washington) proposed his Glucose-Ascorbate Antagonism (GAA) theory, which predicts that high glucose levels hinder vitamin C entry into cells. Animals which make their own vitamin C use dietary glucose as the raw material, and the ascorbate and glucose molecules are similar. The similarity extends past molecular structure to the way they are attracted to, and enter, cells. Both molecules require help from the pancreatic hormone insulin before they can penetrate cell membranes using special "pumps." The name for the process that propels glucose and vitamin C (the reduced form) through cell membranes is insulin-mediated uptake.

Professor Ely studied the insulin-mediated uptake of glucose and vitamin C using white blood cells. White blood cells have more insulin pumps and they may contain 20 times the amount of vitamin C of ordinary cells. Dr. Ely explains that both glucose and vitamin C molecules compete, but all things are not equal. The evolutionary "fight-or-flight" response favors glucose entry into cells at the expense of vitamin C. Because of this antagonism between sugar and Vitamin C, Ely recommends a low-carbohydrate, low-processed sugar diet.

Professor Ely advised Linus Pauling of the GAA theory, and its prediction that vitamin C would be less effective fighting colds in those who did not restrict their sugar intake. Recently, he and his associates conducted a study on the common cold to test the GAA theory. Sugar and refined carbohydrates were restricted in the subjects. According to Dr. Ely, the remarkable results showed an overwhelming preventive and curative property of vitamin C against the common cold in subjects with reduced sugar intake.

Want To Know More?

For more information about Advanced Scientific Health (ASH) please visit the ASH web site, here.

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