What's in a Mnemonic: encapsulated organisms


One of the most high yield mnemonics in microbiology is the one for encapulated organisms:

"Some Nasty Killers Have Some Capsule Protection":

Streptococcus pneumoniae
Neisseria meningitidis
Klebsiella pnemoniae
Haemophilus influenzae
Salmonella typhi
Cryptococcus neoformans
Pseudomanas aeruginosa

Most people know this mnemonic. However, many people don't realize how many questions they can answer just by memorizing just one sentence.

The following are uses for the above mnemonic:

  1. If the question presents a patient missing anything needed to kill encapsulated organisms (eg spleen, IgG, C3b, macrophages, etc.), they are at increased risk for infections from the above bugs.
  2. Diseases that are infamously susceptible to encapsulated organisms:
    1. anyone who doesn't have a functional spleen (eg: sickle cell)
    2. Bruton's agammaglobulinemia
  3. If an organism has a capsule, some vaccines are made against the capsule
    1. Pneumococci
    2. Meningococci
    3. H. influenzae type b
  4. Usually, the capsule is a major virulence factor for the above organisms.
  5. If the question mentions a positive Quellung reaction, look for one of the above bugs for an answer.
  6. Big mucoid colonies on blood agar is Klebsiella (from a big mucoid capsule)

16 comments:

  1. Cool article...
    To easily create mnemonics (jogs) try this cool site...
    www.JogLab.com
    Jog your memory. Remember everything.
    Enjoy, and please pass it on...

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  2. awesome ! Thank you.

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  3. In addition to the above uses of this mnemonic, if the question mentions a "smooth" colony, look for one of these bugs.

    REF: http://www.bmb.leeds.ac.uk/mbiology/ug/ugteach/icu8/introduction/bacteria.html#capsules

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  4. Awesome! Thank you...no matter how long it has been since you put time and effort sharing this info...it is never old or outdated! Thanks!

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  5. awesome. thank you so much. will definitely come back to your blog.

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  6. Bacillus anthracis is encapsulated as well

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    Replies
    1. I think this might be a mutation; not all B. anthracis is encapsulated.

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  7. I use mneumonic SHiNE SkiS uP Cry Ba bY
    (the old SHiNE SkiS everyone knows plus uP = Pseudomonas; Cry = Cryptococcus; Ba = B. Anthracis; bY = Yersinia pestis (F1 "capsule like" glycoprotein surface antigen inhibits phagocytosis)

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