Research
on microbial pathogens has shown that diverse
pathogens often utilize similar mechanisms to
cause disease, and that there are several fundamental
mechanisms or virulence traits that are common
to a wide variety of pathogens. These “common
themes” include adherence mechanisms;  conserved
machinery for secretion of virulence factors such
as protein toxins through surface membranes; iron
acquisition systems, particularly for mammalian
pathogens; and the ability to resist host immune
mechanisms such as oxidative killing and defensins
in both plant and animal pathogens. Understanding
these common mechanisms is critical to understanding
how microorganisms cause infection and disease,
and is a key step to development of strategies
designed to inhibit such common processes. A major
focus of basic research in the Center for Microbial
Pathogenesis is the study of these common themes,
and in particular the comparative study of common
mechanisms in diverse pathogens and disparate
pathosystems.
The
long-term practical goals of this research include
the rational design of therapeutic, diagnostic,
and preventive strategies to identify and control
a broad range of infectious diseases. Therapeutics
or vaccines that target critical and common bacterial
virulence or pathogenicity determinants represent
important tools for current and future disease
management. Novel drugs that target bacterial
pathogenicity proteins could reduce resistance
development if resistant target-site variants
that evolve were compromised in virulence.
Although
animals and plants are substantially divergent
systems, a surprising number of virulence factors
and virulence mechanisms are conserved among animal
and plant pathogens. Center research in this area
currently focuses on three classes of common virulence
factors found in a variety of plant and animal
pathogens: Type II secretion systems, Type III
secretion systems, and mechanisms to resist oxidative
killing.
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