Pulmonary bacterial pathogens are a major global health threat that is exacerbated by widespread antimicrobial resistance. Many of these pathogens have evolved to subvert the host inflammatory response and cause disease by avoiding or replicating in the very cells meant to protect the host against bacterial intruders, namely innate immune phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils. Studying these pathogens and their interactions with the host is thus vital to the development of novel antimicrobials and host-directed immunotherapies.
To this end, it is essential that the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenicity of bacterial pulmonary pathogens be delineated. This requires studies that consider both the bacterial and host perspective. How do the bacteria adapt to the pulmonary environment? How does the host orchestrate intercellular communication between somatic and immune cells in response to the presence of bacterial pulmonary pathogens? Elucidating these interactions at the local level is further important in understanding the heterogeneity observed even within a single host (e.g. in environment and host response), which has critical implications for disease progression and outcome.
This Research Topic brings together studies and reviews (e.g. Original Research, Brief Research Reports, Methods, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Commentaries) that focus on:
1. Molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and virulence of bacterial pulmonary pathogens, including toxins and effector proteins
2. Therapeutic avenues for bacterial pulmonary pathogens
3. Role of innate and adaptive immunity in bacterial pulmonary infections
4. Experimental systems and approaches to studying bacterial pulmonary pathogens
5. Bacterial pulmonary pathogen co-evolution with its host
6. The impact of heterogeneity/non-uniformity during bacterial pulmonary infection (drivers, consequences)
Dr. Shumin Tan is listed as an inventor on a patent filing pertinent to the compounds disclosed in Lavin RC et al, PLoS Biol. 19(7): e3001355, 2021, as an employee of Tufts University.
Pulmonary bacterial pathogens are a major global health threat that is exacerbated by widespread antimicrobial resistance. Many of these pathogens have evolved to subvert the host inflammatory response and cause disease by avoiding or replicating in the very cells meant to protect the host against bacterial intruders, namely innate immune phagocytes such as macrophages and neutrophils. Studying these pathogens and their interactions with the host is thus vital to the development of novel antimicrobials and host-directed immunotherapies.
To this end, it is essential that the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenicity of bacterial pulmonary pathogens be delineated. This requires studies that consider both the bacterial and host perspective. How do the bacteria adapt to the pulmonary environment? How does the host orchestrate intercellular communication between somatic and immune cells in response to the presence of bacterial pulmonary pathogens? Elucidating these interactions at the local level is further important in understanding the heterogeneity observed even within a single host (e.g. in environment and host response), which has critical implications for disease progression and outcome.
This Research Topic brings together studies and reviews (e.g. Original Research, Brief Research Reports, Methods, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Commentaries) that focus on:
1. Molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity and virulence of bacterial pulmonary pathogens, including toxins and effector proteins
2. Therapeutic avenues for bacterial pulmonary pathogens
3. Role of innate and adaptive immunity in bacterial pulmonary infections
4. Experimental systems and approaches to studying bacterial pulmonary pathogens
5. Bacterial pulmonary pathogen co-evolution with its host
6. The impact of heterogeneity/non-uniformity during bacterial pulmonary infection (drivers, consequences)
Dr. Shumin Tan is listed as an inventor on a patent filing pertinent to the compounds disclosed in Lavin RC et al, PLoS Biol. 19(7): e3001355, 2021, as an employee of Tufts University.
