mycoplasmas from now on today i will read more about mycoplasmas 041022 ... from now on Mycoplasmas: Sophisticated, Reemerging, and Burdened by Their Notoriety "...mycoplasmas by themselves can cause acute and chronic diseases at multiple sites with wide-ranging complications and have been implicated as cofactors in disease. Recently, mycoplasmas have been linked as a cofactor to AIDS pathogenesis and to malignant transformation, chromosomal aberrations, the Gulf War Syndrome, and other unexplained and complex illnesses, including chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn's disease, and various arthritides (4-8). Even with mounting evidence of their pervasive and pathogenic potential, mycoplasmas still evoke the image of a group of obscure or impotent microorganisms. Yet they are evolutionarily advanced procaryotes (9-11), and their elite status as "next generation" bacterial pathogens necessitates new paradigms in fully understanding their disease potential. ...Several recent examples illustrate the increasing impact of Mycoplasma species on emerging diseases. Mycoplasma fermentans strains were first isolated from the lower genital tract of both adult men and women in the early 1950s, but their role in classic lower genital tract disease has not been established (16). Reports in the 1970s of M. fermentans in the joints of rheumatoid arthritis patients and in the bone marrow of children with leukemia raised expectations for its pathogenic potential (17,18); these findings have not been adequately confirmed. Sufficient evidence, however, has accumulated recently to establish an important and emerging role for M. fermentans in human respiratory and joint diseases. For example, M. fermentans has been detected by specific gene amplification techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the synovial fluid of patients with inflammatory arthritis, but not in the joints of patients with juvenile or reactive arthritis (19). In two other studies using PCR, M. fermentans was identified in the upper respiratory tract of 20% to 44% of both healthy and HIV-infected patients (20,21) and was associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome in nonimmunocompromised persons (22). ... The role of mycoplasmas in accelerating the progression of AIDS could not have begun under more baffling and circuitous conditions. A virus-like agent that arose through transfection of NIH 3T3 cells with DNA from Kaposi sarcoma tissues of AIDS patients was later shown to be M. fermentans. The spotted history of M. fermentans in rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia and its frequent contamination of cell cultures, along with its contemporary link to AIDS, have been considerable impediments to overcome in its elevation to pathogenic status. However, careful and convincing independent studies by several laboratories have implicated M. fermentans as a cause of systemic infections and organ failure in AIDS patients (4,74). The isolation of M. fermentans from blood and urine samples of HIV-infected persons, its detection by PCR and immunohistochemistry in multiple tissue sites at various stages of AIDS, and its ability to stimulate CD4+ lymphocytes and other immunomodulatory activities implicate this Mycoplasma species as a cofactor in AIDS. Consistent with this possibility, M. fermentans has been shown to act synergistically with HIV to enhance cytopathic effects on human CD4+ lymphocytes. Coincident with these studies, a new Mycoplasma species, Mycoplasma penetrans, also has emerged as a potential cofactor in AIDS progression (75,76). Its isolation almost exclusively from the urine of HIV-infected patients, the extraordinarily high prevalence of antibodies against this mycoplasma in HIV-infected patients and not in HIV-seronegative persons, and its capacity to invade target cells and activate the immune system of HIV-infected patients at various stages of disease correlate with a synergistic role with HIV. Other mycoplasmas, including M. genitalium and Mycoplasma pirum, have also been isolated from AIDS patients and implicated as potential cofactors. However, the proposed role of mycoplasmas as infectious agents and cofactors in AIDS-related disorders still remains a hypothesis without definitive proof. If cofactors of HIV are essential to the development of late stages of HIV-mediated disease, mycoplasmas possess all the prerequisite properties of the consummate helper. Their ability to establish covert or overt chronic and persistent infections with concomitant activation of the immune system, stimulation of cytokine production, and induction of oxidative stress correlate with increased HIV replication and disease progression. Are mycoplasmas irrelevant to AIDS, or are the clinical and microbiological correlations sufficient to imply intimate relationships between HIV and mycoplasmas, especially as the infected host undergoes immunologic distress?..." http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol3no1/baseman.htm 041023 ... from now on Infectious Causes of Chronic Inflammatory Diseases and Cancer "...Powerful diagnostic technology, plus the realization that organisms of otherwise unimpressive virulence can produce slowly progressive chronic disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and disease outcomes, has resulted in the discovery of new infectious agents and new concepts of infectious diseases. The demonstration that final outcome of infection is as much determined by the genetic background of the patient as by the genetic makeup of the infecting agent is indicating that a number of chronic diseases of unknown etiology are caused by one or more infectious agents. One well-known example is the discovery that stomach ulcers are due to Helicobacter pylori. Mycoplasmas may cause chronic lung disease in newborns and chronic asthma in adults, and Chlamydia pneumoniae, a recently identified common cause of acute respiratory infection, has been associated with atherosclerosis. A number of infectious agents that cause or contribute to neoplastic diseases in humans have been documented in the past 6 years. The association and causal role of infectious agents in chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer have major implications for public health, treatment, and prevention. ...Advances in molecular biology and medical devices have revolutionized our ability to detect very low numbers of infectious agents in specimens collected directly from the affected site. HIV has demonstrated the ability of infectious agents to produce slowly progressive, chronic disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and disease outcomes. ...Recent data suggest a role for one or more infectious agents in the following chronic diseases: chronic lung diseases (including asthma), cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Many of the agents implicated are commonly transmissible and are either treatable with existing antibiotics or are potentially treatable with antiviral drugs. Thus, proof of causality in any one of these diseases would have enormous implications for public health, treatment, and prevention. Few areas of research hold greater promise of contributing to our understanding of infectious diseases and the eventual relief of human suffering..." http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no3/cassell.htm 041023 what's it to you? who go blather from