AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Influence of Aerosol Particle Size on Inhalational Pathogenesis
RICHARD THOMAS, Dstl
Abstract Number: 157 Working Group: Environmental Fate of Infectious Aerosols
Abstract Aerosolization of a biological material will produce aerosols comprising a range of different particle sizes commensurate to the method of generation. These will rapidly evaporate to their final particle size which will dictate where within the respiratory tract the particles will deposit. Small particles (e.g. 1 - 3 micro-meter) will deposit in the alveolar region of the lung, whilst larger particles (e.g. 10 - 30 micro-meter) will impact further up the respiratorytract. Deposition site has been demonstrated to influence pathogenesis with infection initiating in the upper respiratory tract involving the nasal cavity and upper respiratory tract lymphoid tissues whilst the lung is the primary focus of infection after deposition of small particle aerosols. In addition, for the large particle inhalational infections, alternative pathogenesis was observed dependent on the inhaled micro-organism; for example gastrointestinal pathology or invasion of the olfactory neuronal pathway. Particle size dependent inhalational infections will be described using pathogenesis data obtained from a range of Select Agents including Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis and Burkholderia pseudomallei.
This presentation will describe the development of capabilities in high level microbiological containment, experimental progress and draw on the literature to assess the influence of aerosol particle size on pathogenesis on inhalational infections to better inform consequence analysis models.