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Bacterial
infections are a major problem in cancer patients. Bacteria isolated from blood
cultures are either Gram-positive or Gram-negative such as Staphylococcus
aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter species,
Enterobacteriaceae and others.
Another
group of bacteria which can be isolated from blood cultures of cancer patients
are mycoplasmas such as M.pulmonis, M. fermentans, M.hominis, M.salivarium and
others.
Of interest
in this connection are also the hemotrophic bacteria, the families
Bartonellaceae and Anaplasmataceae. Organisms of the various genera of the
family Anaplasmataceae are all quite similar morphologically and are similar
morphologically to mycoplasmas and L-phase bacteria, cell wall-defective
bacterial variants. Studies by Domingue et al. (1976) describe the recovery of
variant and wall-defective bacterial forms from the blood of normal as well as
diseased humans.
We have
first published 1983 about a group of very small bacteria isolated from
peripheral blood under the suggested name “basoplasmas” or “Basoplasma sanguineum”.
These very small bacteria had a mean diameter of 0,25µm, some of them had a
cell wall, others were cell-wall-deficient bacteria, either L-forms or
mycoplasmas (Ruzicka,1983). Annother difference to the usually found bacteria
was that they were alkaliphiles. Alkaliphiles are micro-organisms which require alkaline pH > 10 and show a
considerable growth at pH of around 10. Alkaliphiles have been isolated mainly
from neutral environments, from soil samples of neutral pH, sometimes even from
acidic soil samples. However, they should be considered as extremophiles, even
though they can be isolated from normal environments because of their
alkaliphily. In this connection the most interesting bacterium is the soil
bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens that grows in soil with pH=12 and infects
the roots and stems of dicotyledonous plants resulting in cancerous growth
(galls).
Kajander et
al. 1994 isolated tiny bacteria from human blood. They can pass through sterile
filters and endure g-irradiation like a virus ( 1 mega rad). Their size is
between that of a virus and cell-walled bacteria. Their suggested name is “
Nanobacterium sanguineum”. They produce a slimy biomatrix that forms carbonate
apatite mineral around them in culture (Kajander, 1998). Fig.1B,C,D, Kajander et al. 1994 and Fig.4A, Kajander, 1998 show TEM photomicrographs of
cultured “Nanobacterium sanquineum or sanguineum” similar morphologically to TEM photomicrographs of tiny bacteria we
isolated from human blood (fig. 10a) called “basoplasmas”, Ruzicka ,1983. Our
fig.3b show a nano – colony of these tiny bacteria, partly dividing and
crystals between the bacteria comparable with apatit crystals we observed in
dental calculus (Ruzicka,1983, 1984). We suggested that these nano – colonies
are growing in erythrocytes, because we could see similar structures within
erythrocytes by light microscopy.
With an
“anti-ca” FITC we detected the small bacteria in freeze sectioned cancer tissue
and in blood smears of cancer patients but rarely in the control
group(Ruzicka,1983). Ciftcioglu and Kajander, 1998 showed that many malignant
cells have receptors for “nanobacterial” adherence.
An animal
experiment showed that from 18 mice with subcutaneous injection of 0,1ml
particle (“basoplasmas”) suspension 28% fall ill with cancer. 39% had chronic
inflammations and 67% had granulocytosis. One mouse from the control had an adenoma
of the lung and one an osteoma that are 17%, the other mice were healthy
(Ruzicka,1983).
As a
conclusion of our results we think that these small bacteria are a cofactor of
oncogenesis and not a commensal. Our supposition is that these facultative
alkaliphilic and hemotrophic 0,25µm bacteria called by us (Ruzicka, 1983) “basoplasmas”
or “Basoplasma sanguineum sp. nov.” first infects erythrocytes. A possible
pathway of infection are ticks. Erythrocytes have no nucleus and therefore
their transformation is not possible. If the number of “basoplasmas” after their multiplication within
erythrocytes is high enough they infects other human tissues. Infection is
directed by a tumour inducing (Ti) plasmid, by the insertion of specific genes
(T-DNA) into the genome of infected human cells.
Preface Introduction Blood Analyses Culture Immunfluorescence Animal Experiment Discussion Summary Literature Biography