Cargando…
Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites
The number of pathogens that are required to infect a host, termed infective dose, varies dramatically across pathogen species. It has recently been predicted that infective dose will depend upon the mode of action of the molecules that pathogens use to facilitate their infection. Specifically, path...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2012
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3280976/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22359500 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002512 |
_version_ | 1782223891862650880 |
---|---|
author | Leggett, Helen C. Cornwallis, Charlie K. West, Stuart A. |
author_facet | Leggett, Helen C. Cornwallis, Charlie K. West, Stuart A. |
author_sort | Leggett, Helen C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The number of pathogens that are required to infect a host, termed infective dose, varies dramatically across pathogen species. It has recently been predicted that infective dose will depend upon the mode of action of the molecules that pathogens use to facilitate their infection. Specifically, pathogens which use locally acting molecules will require a lower infective dose than pathogens that use distantly acting molecules. Furthermore, it has also been predicted that pathogens with distantly acting immune modulators may be more virulent because they have a large number of cells in the inoculums, which will cause more harm to host cells. We formally test these predictions for the first time using data on 43 different human pathogens from a range of taxonomic groups with diverse life-histories. We found that pathogens using local action do have lower infective doses, but are not less virulent than those using distant action. Instead, we found that virulence was negatively correlated with infective dose, and higher in pathogens infecting wounded skin, compared with those ingested or inhaled. More generally, our results show that broad-scale comparative analyses can explain variation in parasite traits such as infective dose and virulence, whilst highlighting the importance of mechanistic details. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3280976 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-32809762012-02-22 Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites Leggett, Helen C. Cornwallis, Charlie K. West, Stuart A. PLoS Pathog Research Article The number of pathogens that are required to infect a host, termed infective dose, varies dramatically across pathogen species. It has recently been predicted that infective dose will depend upon the mode of action of the molecules that pathogens use to facilitate their infection. Specifically, pathogens which use locally acting molecules will require a lower infective dose than pathogens that use distantly acting molecules. Furthermore, it has also been predicted that pathogens with distantly acting immune modulators may be more virulent because they have a large number of cells in the inoculums, which will cause more harm to host cells. We formally test these predictions for the first time using data on 43 different human pathogens from a range of taxonomic groups with diverse life-histories. We found that pathogens using local action do have lower infective doses, but are not less virulent than those using distant action. Instead, we found that virulence was negatively correlated with infective dose, and higher in pathogens infecting wounded skin, compared with those ingested or inhaled. More generally, our results show that broad-scale comparative analyses can explain variation in parasite traits such as infective dose and virulence, whilst highlighting the importance of mechanistic details. Public Library of Science 2012-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3280976/ /pubmed/22359500 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002512 Text en Leggett et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Leggett, Helen C. Cornwallis, Charlie K. West, Stuart A. Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title | Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title_full | Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title_fullStr | Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title_full_unstemmed | Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title_short | Mechanisms of Pathogenesis, Infective Dose and Virulence in Human Parasites |
title_sort | mechanisms of pathogenesis, infective dose and virulence in human parasites |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3280976/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22359500 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002512 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT leggetthelenc mechanismsofpathogenesisinfectivedoseandvirulenceinhumanparasites AT cornwallischarliek mechanismsofpathogenesisinfectivedoseandvirulenceinhumanparasites AT weststuarta mechanismsofpathogenesisinfectivedoseandvirulenceinhumanparasites |