Persistent intracellular pathogens

Intracellular pathogens under attack

T he immune system provides a formidable barrier that prevents us from being overwhelmed by the numerous microbial pathogens that we encounter every day. However, many pathogens manage to escape the immune system by invading cells and replicating within them. To counter these pathogens immune cells produce a powerful cytokine called interferon-g that reprograms the invaded cells to express hund...

Evolution of intracellular pathogens.

The evolution of intracellular pathogens is considered in the context of ambiguities in basic definitions and the diversity of host-microbe interactions. Intracellular pathogenesis is a subset of a larger world of host-microbe interactions that includes amoeboid predation and endosymbiotic existence. Intracellular pathogens often reveal genome reduction. Despite the uniqueness of each host-micr...

Remodeling schemes of intracellular pathogens.

Intracellular pathogens: A virus joins the movement

Bacteria perform astounding feats inside host cells, demonstrating that they are able to exploit principles of cell biology that so far have eluded some of the brightest human minds. Included in their repertoire is the ability to recruit cytoskeletal elements, appropriating them to the task of bacterial locomotion. Several species of three unrelated bacterial genera — Listeria, Shigella and Ric...

Rab32 restriction of intracellular bacterial pathogens.

Our immune system is engaged in a continuous battle against invading pathogens, many of which have evolved to survive in intracellular niches of mammalian hosts. A variety of cellular processes are involved in preventing bacterial invasion or in killing bacteria that successfully invade host cells. Recently, the Rab GTPase Rab32 emerged as critical regulator of a host defense pathway that can e...