Pathogens-Host Interaction and Vaccine/Drug Design

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1110

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
The Phillip and Patricia Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, 1201 Memorial Drive, Miami, FL 33146, USA
Interests: the structural biology of infectious diseases; bacterial; pathogens and their elicited immune responses

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last century, improvements in prevention and treatments have resulted in a significant drop in death rates from infectious diseases. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic proved that there is an urgent need for global efforts to develop effective strategies for prevention, early detection and the development of therapeutics for infectious agents. Currently, infectious diseases remain among the top ten leading causes of death worldwide, with COVID-19 and other respiratory infections resulting in over 11 million deaths in 2021 alone.

When a pathogen enters the host organism, it is confronted by a network of specialized host cells and molecules aiming to detect and eliminate invading pathogens. In response, pathogens have evolved multiple strategies for evading, modulating and hijacking host immune responses. This complex interplay between the host organism and pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, is referred to as host–pathogen interactions.

Enhancing our knowledge of the mechanisms pathogens use to invade and multiply within hosts and evade immune defenses is essential for understanding infectious diseases. Comprehending host–pathogen interactions will enable the identification of immune correlates of protection, potential therapeutic targets, and the development of novel treatments.

For this Special Issue, we invite researchers to contribute either original research (both in vivo or in vitro studies) or review articles focusing on the molecular basis of pathogen–host interactions and the design of novel therapeutics.

Dr. Iga Kucharska
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • infectious diseases
  • host–pathogen interactions
  • vaccine
  • drug design
  • immune evasion
  • immunogen

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 866 KiB  
Communication
Autoimmune Diseases and Molecular Mimicry in Tuberculosis
by Leonid P. Churilov, Muslimbek G. Normatov, Hong Ling, Min Zhuang, Dmitry Kudlay and Anna Starshinova
Biology 2024, 13(12), 1083; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13121083 - 22 Dec 2024
Viewed by 937
Abstract
Comorbidities in tuberculosis patients are increasing annually. Autoimmune pathology may influence the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). However, the molecular mimicry between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and human autoantigens is an important provocative factor in the development of autoimmunity on one hand. Mtb [...] Read more.
Comorbidities in tuberculosis patients are increasing annually. Autoimmune pathology may influence the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB). However, the molecular mimicry between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and human autoantigens is an important provocative factor in the development of autoimmunity on one hand. Mtb has already been widely discussed as a provocateur of autoimmunity in humans. The aim of this study was to determine whether molecular mimicry exists between Mtb antigens and human autoantigens previously demonstrated as targets of autoimmunity. Materials and Methods: We analyzed the level of antibodies in 19 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. In all cases ELISA assays was used. Also, in parallel, we identified 29 similar pentapeptides between key Mtb antigens and human autoantigens. Bioinformatic methods were used in this study. All amino acid sequences of MT antigens and human autoantigens were obtained from the UniProt database, and similar epitopes between Mtb antigens and human autoantigens were identified using the original “Alignmentaj” program. The immunoreactivity of the shared pentapeptides in Mtb antigens was evaluated with use of the IEDB database. Results: The high level of antibodies to modified citrulinated vimentin (anti-MCV) was most frequently detected (57%) in comparison with other antibodies. Elevated levels of antibodies to C3 complement fragments (47%) and rheumatoid factors (21%) in the absence of any rheumatic or autoimmune diseases are noteworthy. Several of the shared pentapeptides belong to the immunoreactive epitopes of Mtb antigens. The bioinformatic data correlated with our earlier studies of the levels of corresponding autoantibodies in the sera of TB patients. Conclusion: Our findings on cross-reactivity and sequence similarity between the Mtb proteins and human autoantigens provide support for the role of antigen mimicry in TB-related autoimmunity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathogens-Host Interaction and Vaccine/Drug Design)
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