Recognition of Staphylococcus aureus by the Innate Immune System

Recognition of Staphylococcus aureus by the innate immune system.

The gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen responsible for a variety of diseases ranging from minor skin infections to life-threatening conditions such as sepsis. Cell wall-associated and secreted proteins (e.g., protein A, hemolysins, and phenol-soluble modulin) and cell wall components (e.g., peptidoglycan and alanylated lipoteichoic acid) have been shown to be infl...

Innate immune recognition of Staphylococcus aureus cell wall components : structural and functional requirements

guidance and valuable scientific support during the last years, for her never ending confidence in my work and for reading my manuscripts. I thank Prof. Dr. Albrecht Wendel for welcoming me into the group, for his interest in my project and for his commitment to the " Graduiertenkolleg IRTG 1331 ". I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my thesis committee, PD Dr. for lending me...

Recognition of Viruses by the Innate Immune System

Avian Bornaviruses Escape Recognition by the Innate Immune System

Like other pathogens that readily persist in animal hosts, members of the Bornaviridae family have evolved effective mechanisms to evade the innate immune response. The prototype of this virus family, Borna disease virus employs an unusual replication strategy that removes the triphosphates from the 5' termini of the viral RNA genome. This strategy allows the virus to avoid activation of RIG-I ...

Tissue-specific patterning of host innate immune responses by Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin.

Immunomodulatory cytotoxins are prominent virulence factors produced by Staphylococcus aureus, a leading cause of bacterial sepsis, skin infection, and pneumonia. S. aureus α-toxin is a pore-forming toxin that utilizes a widely expressed receptor, ADAM10, to injure the host epithelium, endothelium, and immune cells. As each host tissue is characterized by a unique composition of resident cells ...