Unveiling the pathogen behind the vacuole

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.Many clinically relevant pathogens, including certain bacteria and protozoan parasites, have developed an intracellular lifestyle that enables them to nestle in customized vacuoles. Although these pathogens are protected from extracellular defences, recent findings indicate that host cells have evolved multiple strategies to unmask the pathogen disguised by the vacuole and thereby initiate innate immune responses. In this Opinion article, we propose and discuss models by which hosts can sense 'professional' vacuolar pathogens, and we highlight the ability of the host to target these stealthy bacteria and parasites.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metabolic crosstalk between host and parasitic pathogens

A complex network that embraces parasite-host intrinsic factors and the microenvironment regulated the interaction between a parasite and its host. Nutritional pressures exerted by both elements of this duet thus dictate this host-parasite niche. To survive and proliferate inside a host and a harsh nutritional environment, the parasites modulate different nutrient sensing pathways to subvert host metabolic pathways. Such mechanism is able to change the flux of distinct nutrients/metabolites diverting them to be used by the parasites. Apart from this nutritional strategy, the scavenging of nutrients, particularly host fatty acids, constitutes a critical mechanism to fulfil parasite nutritional requirements, ultimately defining the host metabolic landscape. The host metabolic alterations that result from host-parasite metabolic coupling can certainly be considered important targets to improve diagnosis and also for the development of future therapies. Metabolism is in fact considered a key element within this complex interaction, its modulation being crucial to dictate the final infection outcome.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio