WEEK 8 CASE STUDY

  

WEEK 8 CASE STUDY

 

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Introduction

The behavior of different organisms is mainly based on the concerted action that tends to occur in astonishing ranges from the molecular level to the organismal level. According to Candia et al. (2013), they conducted a research where there must be a simultaneous measurement of multiple cell components. They later state that multiple cells need to be measured to understand an organism’s health. This paper will examine a case study presented earlier and analyze the symptoms of the case study patient. The paper will also tend toidentify the association between the genes and the development of the disease together with the effect and the process of immunosuppression.

Symptoms Presented

From the symptoms that the patient was experiencing, I can conclude that the patient has signs and symptoms of a blood infection. Due to the shaking of the hands and his son presenting that he cannot stand on his own from a chair, I can conclude that the patient has rheumatoid arthritis (RA). According to various researches they claim RA is treated using two main drugs; methotrexate and prednisone (Larkin, 2017). Combining these two drugs tends to suppress the patient’s immune system, which opens a ‘back door’ leading to bacteria entering his bloodstream, resultingina blood infection. The main aim of these drugs is usually to suppress the immune system to prevent it from attacking the patient’s own body.

Association of Genes with the Development of the Disease

Histoplasmosis is a fungal infection caused by a fungus known as Histoplasma (CDC, 2019). This fungus lives in the environment, and people tend to get histoplasmosis by breathing the microscopic fungal spores from the environment. The majority of the people will live better without medications if they tend to contract histoplasmosis,but, in some people,for instance, in this case,the study does that have a weakened immune system will face severe symptoms of this infection. According to Cano &Hajjeh cited in CDC (2019), the significant histoplasmosis symptoms include chills, cough, chest pain, body aches, fatigue, and fever. Some of the genes associated with histoplasmosis include; G186A, G217B (Edwards &Rappleye, 2011), IFNG, ATP6V1A, and HLA-B (Malacards, 2021). These genes have something in common: they are associated with the development of histoplasmosis or directly related to the immune system of a patient’s body.

Process and Effect of Immunosuppression

Immunosuppression is mainly a state in which one’s immune system is not functioning well is supposed to be. This tends to be essential as it protects the body from its immune system, as without immunosuppression, the body is at high risk of being attacked by the immune system. In this case study, the patient was believed to be using prednisone and methotrexate, which are believed to suppress the immune system. When the immune system is low, there’s a high chance of the patient being infected by fungal infections such as histoplasmosis. These drugs block the functions of various enzymes such as inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase and stop the multiplication of the T- Cells.

Other than increasing the risk of being infected, there are other effects of immunosuppression, including the patient having hand trembling, nausea, loss of appetite, increased hair growth, and vomiting. There are other serious side effects such as the patient having a fever over 100 degrees, a cough that wouldn’t persist, fatigue, and frequent urination together with or not having a burning sensation while urinating.

References

Candia, J., Maunu, R., Driscoll, M., Biancotto, A., Dagur, P., McCoy, J. P., Sen, H. N., Wei, L., Maritan, A., Cao, K., Nussenblatt, R. B., Banavar, J. R., &Losert, W. (2013). From Cellular Characteristics to Disease Diagnosis: Uncovering Phenotypes with Supercells. PLoS Computational Biology, 9(9), e1003215. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003215

CDC. (2019). Histoplasmosis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/histoplasmosis/index.html

Edwards, J. A., &Rappleye, C. A. (2011). Histoplasma mechanisms of pathogenesis – one portfolio doesn’t fit all. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 324(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.2011.02363.x

Larkin, M. (2017, May 23). Adding Prednisone to Methotrexate May Be Helpful in Early RA. The Rheumatologist. https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/adding-prednisone-methotrexate-may-helpful-early-ra/

MalaCards. (2021). Genes related to Histoplasmosis (0 elite genes). Malacards.org. https://www.malacards.org/card/histoplasmosis

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