Microbial adaptive pathogenicity strategies to the host inflammatory environment.

Hitzler SUJ, Fernández C, Montaño DE, Dietschmann A, Gresnigt MS (2024) Microbial adaptive pathogenicity strategies to the host inflammatory environment. FEMS Microbiol Rev 49, fuae032. (Review)

Abstract

Pathogenic microorganisms can infect a variety of niches in the human body. During infection, microbes can only persist if they adapt adequately to the dynamic host environment and the stresses imposed by the immune system. While viruses entirely rely on host cells to replicate, bacteria and fungi use their pathogenicity mechanisms for the acquisition of essential nutrients that lie under host restriction. An inappropriate deployment of pathogenicity mechanisms will alert host defence mechanisms that aim to eradicate the pathogen. Thus, these adaptations require tight regulation to guarantee nutritional access without eliciting strong immune activation. To work efficiently, the immune system relies on a complex signalling network, involving a myriad of immune mediators, some of which are quite directly associated with imminent danger for the pathogen. To manipulate the host immune system, viruses have evolved cytokine receptors and viral cytokines. However, among bacteria and fungi, selected pathogens have evolved the capacity to use these inflammatory response-specific signals to regulate their pathogenicity. In this review, we explore how bacterial and fungal pathogens can sense the immune system and, use adaptive pathogenicity strategies to evade and escape host defence to ensure their persistence in the host.

Leibniz-HKI-Authors

Axel Dietschmann
Candela Fernández-Fernández
Mark Gresnigt
Sophia Hitzler
Dolly Estella Montaño Espinosa

Identifier

doi: 10.1093/femsre/fuae032

PMID: 39732621