despite all its virulence factors, pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen.
despite all its virulence factors what type of pathogen is pseudomonas aeruginosa?
opportunistic pathogen
pseudomonas aeruginosa





























pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common encapsulated, gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that can cause disease in plants and animals, including humans. a species of considerable medical importance, "p. aeruginosa" is a multidrug resistant pathogen recognized for its ubiquity, its intrinsically advanced antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and its association with serious illnesses – hospital-acquired infections such as ventilator-associated pneumonia and various sepsis syndromes.
pseudomonas aeruginosa
as mentioned previously, "pseudomonas aeruginosa" produces a host of virulence factors in concert, under the control of the quorum sensing system. many studies show that inhibiting quorum sensing down-regulates the pathogenicity of "pseudomonas aeruginosa". however, it has been shown that rhamnolipids specifically are a key virulence determinant in "pseudomonas aeruginosa". a variety of virulence factors were analysed in "pseudomonas aeruginosa" strains isolated from pneumonia patients. rhamnolipids were found to be the only virulence factor that was associated with the deterioration of the patients to ventilator-associated pneumonia. several other reports also support the role of rhamnolipids in lung infections. the effect of rhamnolipids in "pseudomonas aeruginosa" virulence has been further noted in corneal infections (alarcon et al., 2009; zhu et al., 2004). it has been shown that rhamnolipids are able to integrate into the epithelial cell membrane and disrupt tight-junctions. this study used reconstituted epithelial membranes and purified rhamnolipids to demonstrate this mechanism. in addition to inhibition and killing of epithelial cells, rhamnolipids are able to kill polymorphonuclear (pmn) leukocytes and macrophages and inhibit phagocytosis. in summary, rhamnolipids have been shown unequivocally to be a potent virulence factor in the human host, however, they are also produced outside of the host, for example in a soil environment.
rhamnolipid