Search results for "Pathogen"
showing 10 items of 1657 documents
From attachment to damage: defined genes of Candida albicans mediate adhesion, invasion and damage during interaction with oral epithelial cells.
2010
Candida albicans frequently causes superficial infections by invading and damaging epithelial cells, but may also cause systemic infections by penetrating through epithelial barriers. C. albicans is an unusual pathogen because it can invade epithelial cells via two distinct mechanisms: induced endocytosis, analogous to facultative intracellular enteropathogenic bacteria, and active penetration, similar to plant pathogenic fungi. Here we investigated the molecular basis of C. albicans epithelial interactions. By systematically assessing the contributions of defined fungal pathways and factors to different stages of epithelial interactions, we provide an expansive portrait of the processes an…
Immune Evasion Proteins Enhance Cytomegalovirus Latency in the Lungs
2009
ABSTRACT CD8 T cells control cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in bone marrow transplantation recipients and persist in latently infected lungs as effector memory cells for continuous sensing of reactivated viral gene expression. Here we have addressed the question of whether viral immunoevasins, glycoproteins that specifically interfere with antigen presentation to CD8 T cells, have an impact on viral latency in the murine model. The data show that deletion of immunoevasin genes in murine CMV accelerates the clearance of productive infection during hematopoietic reconstitution and leads to a reduced latent viral genome load, reduced latency-associated viral transcription, and a lower inciden…
The Transcription Factors TBX2 and TBX3 Interact with Human Papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) L2 and Repress the Long Control Region of HPVs
2013
ABSTRACT The minor capsid protein L2 of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) has multiple functions during the viral life cycle. Although L2 is required for effective invasion and morphogenesis, only a few cellular interaction partners are known so far. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, we identified the transcription factor TBX2 as a novel interaction partner of HPV type 16 (HPV16) L2. Coimmunoprecipitations and immunofluorescence analyses confirmed the L2-TBX2 interaction and revealed that L2 also interacts with TBX3, another member of the T-box family. Transcription of the early genes during HPV infection is under the control of an upstream enhancer and early promoter region, the long control r…
The Streptococcal Exotoxin Streptolysin O Activates Mast Cells To Produce Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha by p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase- and Pr…
2003
ABSTRACTStreptolysin O (SLO), a major virulence factor of pyogenic streptococci, binds to cholesterol in the membranes of eukaryotic cells and oligomerizes to form large transmembrane pores. While high toxin doses are rapidly cytocidal, low doses are tolerated because a limited number of lesions can be resealed. Here, we report that at sublethal doses, SLO activates primary murine bone marrow-derived mast cells to degranulate and to rapidly induce or enhance the production of several cytokine mRNAs, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Mast cell-derived TNF-α plays an important protective role in murine models of acute inflammation, and the production of this cytokine was analyzed…
Helicobacter pylori gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and vacuolating cytotoxin promote gastric persistence and immune tolerance
2013
Infection with the gastric bacterial pathogen Helicobacter pylori is typically contracted in early childhood and often persists for decades. The immunomodulatory properties of H. pylori that allow it to colonize humans persistently are believed to also account for H. pylori ’s protective effects against allergic and chronic inflammatory diseases. H. pylori infection efficiently reprograms dendritic cells (DCs) toward a tolerogenic phenotype and induces regulatory T cells (Tregs) with highly suppressive activity in models of allergen-induced asthma. We show here that two H. pylori virulence determinants, the γ-glutamyl transpeptidase GGT and the vacuolating cytotoxin VacA, contribute critic…
A Method of Transposon Insertion Sequencing in Comprehensively Identifying Vibrio vulnificus Genes Required for Growth in Human Serum
2021
One of the most powerful approaches to detect the loci that enable a pathogen to cause disease is the creation of a high-density transposon mutant library by transposon insertion sequencing (TIS) and the screening of the library using an adequate in vivo and/or ex vivo model of the disease. Here we describe the procedure for detection of the putative loci required for a septicemic pathogen to cause sepsis in humans by using TIS plus an ex vivo model of septicaemia: to grow the pathogen in fresh and inactivated human serum. We selected V. vulnificus because it is a highly invasive pathogen capable of spreading from an infection site to the bloodstream, causing sepsis and death in less than 2…
Complement Component 3 expressed by the endometrial ectopic tissue is involved in the endometriotic lesion formation through mast cell activation
2020
AbstractThe pathophysiology of endometriosis (EM) is an excellent example of immune dysfunction, reminiscent of tumor microenvironment as well. Here, we report that an interplay between C3 and mast cells (MCs) is involved in the pathogenesis of ectopic EM. C3 is at the epicenter of the regulatory feed forward loop, amplifying the inflammatory microenvironment, in which the MCs are protagonists. Thus, C3 can be considered a marker of EM and its local synthesis can promote the engraftment of the endometriotic cysts. We generated a murine model of EM via injection of minced uterine tissue from a donor mouse, into the peritoneum of the recipient mice. The wild type mice showed greater amount of…
The Terminal Complement Complex (TCC) in the Plasma of Patients with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Relationship with Albumin Excretion Rate
1991
Increased TCC levels were found to be present in the plasma of patients with type 1 diabetes associated with the presence of anti-heparan sulfate antibodies and increased urinary excretion of albumin. The authors suggest a role of terminal complement activation in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy.
Urinary MicroRNA Profiling Predicts the Development of Microalbuminuria in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes
2015
Microalbuminuria provides the earliest clinical marker of diabetic nephropathy among patients with Type 1 diabetes, yet it lacks sensitivity and specificity for early histological manifestations of disease. In recent years microRNAs have emerged as potential mediators in the pathogenesis of diabetes complications, suggesting a possible role in the diagnosis of early stage disease. We used quantiative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to evaluate the expression profile of 723 unique microRNAs in the normoalbuminuric urine of patients who did not develop nephropathy (n = 10) relative to patients who subsequently developed microalbuminuria (n = 17). Eighteen microRNAs were strongly associated w…
Occurrence and virulence of Pseudoalteromonas spp. in cultured gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.) and European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.).…
2007
During two long-term bacteriological surveys in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.) culture facilities on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, four different species of Pseudoalteromonas were found in the internal organs of animals. Pseudoalteromonas undina, Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis, P. espejiana and Pseudoalteromonas sp. were isolated from 9% out of 177 European sea bass and 11.7% out of 547 gilthead sea bream and they were recovered as pure cultures in 50% of isolations. Among fish with positive bacterial growth, Pseudoalteromonas was more prevalent in sea bass showing clinical signs (27.7%) and in gilthead sea bream without clinical sig…