Response of an immune system to a pathogen attack depends on the balance between the host immune defense and the virulence of the pathogen. Investigation of molecular interactions between the proteins of a host and a pathogen helps in identifying the pathogenic proteins. It is necessary to understand the dynamics of a normally behaved host system to evaluate the capacity of its immune system up...

Abstract The interaction of Corynebacterium diphtheriae and closely related species with host cells is much more complex than originally thought when these bacteria were considered as extracellular pathogens. Host-pathogen studies revealed a wide range virulence factors contributing to adhesion, invasion, cell damage varying degrees. In combination, lead the successful colonization systems.

Cell biology differs between traditional cell culture and 3-dimensional (3-D) systems, and is modulated by the extracellular matrix. Experimentation in 3-D presents challenges, especially with virulent pathogens. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) kills more humans than any other infection and is characterised by a spatially organised immune response and extracellular matrix remodelling. We devel...

The Mycobacterium pathogens acquire additional properties to expand their pathogenicity and existence spaces. The interaction between pathogenic Mycobacterium components and receptors of host innate immune system is critical for the infection outcome, particularly for the macrophage activation. NOD2 (Nucleotide binding oligomerization domain 2), an intracellular pathogen recognition sensor, att...

Fungal microorganisms frequently lead to life-threatening infections. Within this group of pathogens, the commensal Candida albicans and the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus are by far the most important causes of invasive mycoses in Europe. A key capability for host invasion and immune response evasion are specific molecular interactions between the fungal pathogen and its human host. ...

hOst-PathOgen InteractIOn In the past, most studies have focused on either the side of the pathogen or the host. Tierney et al. (2012) try to overcome this limitation using Next Generation Sequencing (RNA-Seq analysis) to monitor the gene expression of the host and the pathogen simultaneously. They analyze and model the interaction of mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells with the pathogeni...

Reconstruction of host-pathogen protein interaction networks is of great significance to reveal the underlying microbic pathogenesis. However, the current experimentally-derived networks are generally small and should be augmented by computational methods for less-biased biological inference. From the point of view of computational modelling, data scarcity, data unavailability and negative data...

Opportunistic fungal infections are an increasing threat for global health, and for immunocompromised patients in particular. These infections are characterized by interaction between fungal pathogen and host cells. The exact mechanisms and the attendant variability in host and fungal pathogen interaction remain to be fully elucidated. The field of systems biology aims to characterize a biologi...

Gene-for-gene (GFG) and matching-allele (MA) models are qualitatively different paradigms for describing the outcome of genetic interactions between hosts and pathogens. The GFG paradigm was largely built on the foundations of Flor's early work on the flax-flax rust interaction and is based on the concept of genetic recognition leading to incompatible disease outcomes, typical of host immune re...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has coevolved with humans for tens of thousands of years. It is thus highly adapted to its human host and has evolved multiple mechanisms to manipulate host immune responses to its advantage. One central host pathogen interaction modality is host cell death pathways. Host cell apoptosis is associated with a protective response to Mtb infection, whereas a necroti...