Dr. Jeffrey Gladden explains how Chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacterium most people carry by middle age, hijacks mitochondria to fuel itself. The pathogen triggers mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress, potentially driving asthma, heart disease, and aging.
One of the stunning examples of this, being you're an interventional cardiologist, is the bacteria that I was mentioning that is very strongly associated with asthma, Chlamydia pneumoniae. Mm-hmm. Most people have never heard of it, even though the majority of the population has come in contact with it by middle age. It is a really interesting bacteria because it has to live inside a human cell. It literally can't live outside the cell. It requires our energy and our lipids. Hmm. In order to survive. So, essentially, it's like a little pirate. It gets into the cell, it takes energy from the mitochondria, and many diseases of aging are linked with mitochondrial dysfunction or characterized by, as well as oxidative stress, dyshomeostasis of metals and lipids, meaning all of these changes. And many of these changes are inducible by this particular pathogen.
