Pathogens and Proteins
Many pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, cause disease in humans. Pathogen infections result in illness and death for millions of people each year. Pathogens communicate with human cells through physical interactions with various human proteins on the surface of the cell and within the interior of the cell. These interactions allow the pathogen to enter the host cell, manipulate important cellular processes, multiply, and invade other cells. A recent paper compares the interactions between human and pathogen proteins from 190 different pathogens to provide important insights into strategies used by pathogens to infect human cells. This shows that both viral and bacterial proteins interact with human proteins that themselves interact with many human proteins or with human proteins that lie on many communication channels between other human proteins. Pathogens may have evolved to interact with these human proteins since they may control critical human cellular process. We also demonstrate that many viruses share common infection strategies, e.g. lengthening particular stages of the cell cycle, controlling programmed cell death, and interacting with the nuclear membrane to transfer viral genetic material into and out of the nucleus. Such studies may help us better understand the process of infection and identify better strategies to prevent or cure infection.
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Tags: Bacteria, Biology, Genetics, Health, Immunology, Medicine, Microbiology, Science, Virology
