The abusive use of antimicrobial drugs during the last eighty years has favoured the natural selection of resistant pathogens able to neutralise drugs efficiently. Nowadays, antimicrobial resistance contributes to millions of deaths yearly, threatens the e ...
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is initiated by the inhalation and implantation of bacteria in the lung alveoli, where they are phagocytosed by macrophages. Even a single bacterium may be sufficient to initiate infection. Thereafter, the clinical outc ...
The bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes is a common cause of both mild and severe human diseases resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality each year. No vaccines are available, and our understanding of the antibody response to this human pathogen is st ...
Objectives: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are a continuously increasing threat for medicine, caus-ing infections recalcitrant to antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were identified as alternatives to antibiotics, being naturally occurring short ...
Despite the structural and functional information contained in the statistical coupling between pairs of residues in a protein, coevolution associated with function is often obscured by artifactual signals such as genetic drift, which shapes a protein's ph ...
Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease with a fluctuating course of excessive inflammation and apparent neovascularization. Microbial dysbiosis with a high density of Bacillus oleronius and increased activity of kallikrein 5, which cleaves c ...
A key attribute of persistent or recurring bacterial infections is the ability of the pathogen to evade the host's immune response. Many Enterobacteriaceae express type 1 pili, a pre-adapted virulence trait, to invade host epithelial cells and establish pe ...
Cecropins are small helical secreted peptides with antimicrobial activity that are widely distributed among insects. Genes encoding Cecropins are strongly induced upon infection, pointing to their role in host defense. In Drosophila, four cecropin genes cl ...
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are host-encoded antibiotics that combat invading microbes. These short immune effectors are conserved in plants, animals, and fungi. Early work showed that AMPs killed bacteria in generalist fashions in vitro: i.e. AMPs that ...
Kessler et al. identify aberrant DNA recognition by cGAS/STING and IFN-I production by inflammatory macrophages as a driver of severe ANCA-associated vasculitis. Pharmacological interventions blocking this pathway ameliorate disease and accelerate recovery ...