How To Treat Infections Caused By Mycoplasma Pneumoniae?

source:filckr

It is strange enough that in order to cure a mycoplasma infection caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae one should do it via his own immune response, particularly the complement system. It is known that B-lactam antibiotics are helpless and useless in this situation. It is connected with the fact that B-lactams, similar to penicillin, perform their actions only on the cell wall, which is absent in Mycoplasma pneumoniae. However, polyene antibiotics that help to combat cholesterols in the membrane of mycoplasma, can also prove effective in the fight against the plasma membrane of the host cells.

The complement system, we referred to above, represents a cascade of proteins that is usually presented in the tissue or the blood of a host. It is involved in antigen-antibody reactions that result in cell lysis.

Membrane attack complex that eradicates the bacteria can be carried out in four ways: through opsonization, cell lysis, inflammotary response and chemoattraction of neutrophils.

It is known that it is always better to prevent a disease than to cure it. Unfortunately, there is too little information about a mycoplasma infection prevention available so far. There is only one common sense thing that you can do. It is to wash your hands often and not to be in close contact with those who have the infection.

It is not necessarily that human hosts affected by Mycoplasma pneumoniae will cause pneumonia. But the virulence this bacterium possesses is connected with the lipid-associated membrane proteins that are on the cell surface. The specific polar tip organelles that is necessary for mediating stickiness to host cells is presented by an organized interaction between such elements as designated adhesions, interactive proteins and adherence-accessory proteins. When adhesions are gathered at the tip of the structure, this enables mycoplasma to settle in mucous membranes and eukaryotic cell surfaces. According to some research, particular mycoplasma species can be commensal to healthy people.

There is also an opinion that Mycoplasma pneumoniae is capable of serving as a medium for bringing other diseases as well into its immune response monopolization. There has been observed the emergence of other severe bacterial as well as viral infections in patients who have Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. It is supposed to be caused by the specific environment that can conducted to other organisms in one of the following ways: anatomically, physiologically, and/or immunologically. This will, in turn, lead to invasion and disruption of cells.