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Mycoplasmas - Stealth Pathogens

By _ , ND_ (http://www.rain-tree.com/author.htm)

January, 2001

Mycoplasmas are a specific and unique species of bacteria - the smallest

free-living organism known on the planet. The primary differences between

mycoplasmas and other bacteria is that bacteria have a solid cell-wall

structure

and they can grow in the simplest culture media. Mycoplasmas however, do not

have a cell wall, and like a tiny jellyfish with a pliable membrane, can take

on many different shapes which make them difficult to identify, even under a

high powered electron microscope. Mycoplasmas can also be very hard to culture

in the laboratory and are often missed as pathogenic causes of diseases for

this reason.

The accepted name was chosen because Mycoplasmas were observed to have a

fungi-like structure (Mycology is the study of fungi - hence " Myco " ) and it

also

had a flowing plasma-like structure without a cell wall - hence " plasma " .

The first strains were isolated from cattle with arthritis and pleuro-pneumonia

in 1898 at the Pasteur Institute. The first human strain was isolated in

1932 from an abscessed wound. The first connection between mycoplasmas and

rheumatoid diseases was made in 1939 by Drs. Swift and Brown. Unfortunately,

mycoplasmas didn't become part of the medical school curriculum until the late

1950's when one specific strain was identified and proven to be the cause of

atypical pneumonia, and named Mycoplasma pneumonia. The association between

immunodeficiency and autoimmune disorders with mycoplasmas was first reported

in

the mid 1970s in patients with primary hypogammaglobulinemia (an autoimmune

disease) and infection with four species of mycoplasma that had localized in

joint tissue. Since that time, scientific testing methodologies have made

critical technological progress and along with it, more mycoplasma species have

been identified and recorded in animals, humans and even plants.

While Mycoplasma pneumonia is certainly not the only species causing disease

in humans, it makes for a good example of how this stealth pathogen can move

out of it's typical environment and into other parts of the body and begin

causing other diseases. While residing in the respiratory tract and lungs,

Mycoplasma pneumonia remains an important cause of pneumonia and other airway

disorders, such as tracheobronchitis, pharyngitis and asthma. When this stealth

pathogen hitches a ride to other parts of the body, it is associated with

non-pulmonary manifestations, such as blood, skin, joint, central nervous

system, liver, pancreas, and cardiovascular syndromes and disorders. Even as

far

back as 1983, doctors at Yale noted:

" Over the past 20 years the annual number of reports on extrapulmonary

symptoms during Mycoplasma (M.) pneumoniae disease has increased. Clinical and

epidemiological data indicate that symptoms from the skin and mucous membranes,

from the central nervous system, from the heart, and perhaps from other

organs as well are not quite uncommon manifestations of M. pneumoniae

disease. " (15)

This single stealth pathogen has been discovered in the urogenital tract of

patients suffering from inflammatory pelvic disease, urethritis, and other

urinary tract diseases (8) It has been discovered in the heart tissues and

fluid of patients suffering from cardititis, pericarditis, tachycardia,

hemolytic

anemia, and other coronary heart diseases.(9, 10, 14) It has been found in

the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with meningitis and encephalitis,

seizures, ALS, Alzheimer's and other central nervous system infections,

diseases and

disorders.(11-13) It has even been found regularly in the bone marrow of

children with leukemia.(16- 18) It is amazing that one single tiny bacteria can

be the cause of so many seemingly unrelated diseases in humans. But as with

all mycoplasma species, the disease is directly related to where the mycoplasma

resides in the body and which cells in the body it attaches to or invades.

Today, over 100 documented species of mycoplasmas have been recorded to

cause

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