The human fungal pathogen Candida glabrata is causing more and more problems in hospitals, as this species shows an intrinsic antifungal drug resistance or rapidly becomes resistant when challenged with antifungals. C. glabrata only grows in the yeas...
Members of the genus Neisseria include pathogens causing important human diseases such as meningitis, septicaemia, gonorrhoea and pelvic inflammatory disease syndrome. Neisseriae are found on the exposed epithelia of the upper respiratory tract and t...
A central aspect of Brucella pathogenicity is its ability to invade, survive, and replicate in diverse phagocytic and non-phagocytic cell types, leading to chronic infections and chronic inflammatory phenomena. Adhesion to the target cell is a critic...
The global burden of tuberculosis (TB), exacerbated by the rise of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), underscores the need for alternative intervention strategies. One promising approach is to block the infection at its earl...
The ability of bacterial species to colonize and infect host organisms is critically dependent upon their capacity to adhere to cellular surfaces of the host. Adherence to cell surfaces is known to be essential for the activation and delivery of cert...
Entamoeba histolytica is the causative agent of amebiasis in humans and is responsible for 100,000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of death due to a protozoan parasite. Pathogenesis appears to result from the potent cytotoxic activ...
The increasing prevalence and association with moderate-to-severe diarrhea make enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) adhesins CS7, CS12, CS14, CS17, and CS21 potential targets of ETEC vaccines. Currently, there are no vaccines licensed to protect...
Immunoglobulin-like (Ig-like) fold domains are abundant on the surface of bacteria, where they are required for cell-to-cell recognition, adhesion, biofilm formation, and conjugative transfer. Fibrillar adhesins are proteins with Ig-like fold(s) that...
The first step in the infection of fungal pathogens in humans is the adhesion of the pathogen to host tissue cells or abiotic surfaces such as catheters and implants. One of the main players involved in this are the expressed cell wall adhesins. Here...
Amyloid structures assemble through a repeating type of bonding called “cross-β”, in which identical sequences in many protein molecules form β-sheets that interdigitate through side chain interactions. We review the structural characteristics of suc...
The mucus layer covering the gastrointestinal (GI) epithelium is critical in selecting and maintaining homeostatic interactions with our gut bacteria. However, the molecular details of these interactions are not well understood. Here, we provide mech...
Fimbriae are long, proteinaceous adhesion organelles expressed on the bacterial envelope, evolutionarily adapted by Escherichia coli strains for the colonization of epithelial linings. Using glycan arrays of the Consortium for Functional Glycomics (C...
Candida parapsilosis is among the most frequent causes of candidiasis. Clinical isolates of this species show large variations in colony morphotype, ranging from round and smooth to a variety of non-smooth irregular colony shapes. A non-smooth appear...
The Mycobacterium avium complex includes two closely related species, Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare. They are opportunistic pathogens in humans and responsible for severe disease in a wide variety of animals. Yet, little is kno...
The ability of Listeria monocytogenes to adhere and form biofilms leads to persistence in food processing plants and food-associated listeriosis. The role of specific surface proteins as adhesins to attach Listeria cells to various contact surfaces h...
Bacterial and fungal adhesins mediate microbial aggregation, biofilm formation, and adhesion to host. We divide these proteins into two major classes: professional adhesins and moonlighting adhesins that have a non-adhesive activity that is evolution...
Salmonella enterica is a Gram-negative, food-borne pathogen, which colonizes the intestinal tract and invades enterocytes. Invasion of polarized cells depends on the SPI1-encoded type III secretion system (T3SS) and the SPI4-encoded type I secretion...
Leptospirosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease affecting mammalian species worldwide. Cattle are a major susceptible host; infection with pathogenic Leptospira spp. represents a public health risk and results in reproductive failure and reduced milk y...
Infective endocarditis (IE), a disease of the endocardial surface of the heart, is usually of bacterial origin and disproportionally affects individuals with underlying structural heart disease. Although IE is typically associated with Gram-positive...
The ability of yeast cells to adhere to other cells or substrates is crucial for many yeasts. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can switch from a unicellular lifestyle to a multicellular one. A crucial step in multicellular lifestyle adaptat...
Systemic infections with pathogenic or facultative pathogenic bacteria are associated with activation and aggregation of platelets leading to thrombocytopenia and activation of the clotting system. Bacterial proteins leading to platelet activation an...
Staphylococcus aureus is a common pathogen, often recovered from children’s infections. Βiofilm formation, antimicrobial resistance and production of adhesins and toxins contribute to its virulence. As resistance to antimicrobials rises wo...
Candida albicans and other closely related pathogenic yeast-like fungi carry on their surface numerous loosely adsorbed “moonlighting proteins”—proteins that play evolutionarily conserved intracellular functions but also appear on t...
Leptospirosis is a neglected infectious disease with global impact on both humans and animals. The increase in urban development without sanitation planning is one of the main reasons for the disease spreading. The symptoms are similar to those of fl...
Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a common Gram-negative foodborne pathogenic bacterium that causes gastrointestinal disease in humans and animals. It is well known that adhesins and invasins play crucial roles in the infect...
Life-threatening systemic fungal infections caused by Candida albicans are significant contributors to clinical mortality, particularly among cancer patients and immunosuppressed individuals. The evasion of the immune response facilitated by fungal s...
Candida albicans and Streptococcus mutans are known to synergistically interact with each other in the oral cavity. For example, glucosyltransferase B (GtfB), secreted by S. mutans, can bind to the C. albicans cell surface, promoting dual-species bio...
Adhesion to the digestive mucosa is considered a key factor for bacterial persistence within the gut. In this study, we show that Ruminococcus gnavus E1 can express the radA gene, which encodes an adhesin of the MSCRAMMs family, only when it colonize...
The development of efficient fungal vaccines is urgent for preventing life-threatening systemic fungal infections. In this study, we prepared a synthetic, cell-based fungal vaccine for preventing systemic fungal infections using synthetic biology tec...
Necrotic enteritis (NE), caused by pathogenic Clostridium perfringens, poses a significant threat to global poultry health, with estimated annual losses exceeding USD 6 billion. The rising incidence of NE has been associated with the reduced use of a...
No vaccines are licensed against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), a leading diarrheal cause in children and travelers. ETEC adhesins and enterotoxins are the virulence determinants and become the primary targets in ETEC vaccine development. H...
Burkholderia cenocepacia is a multi-drug-resistant lung pathogen. This species synthesizes various virulence factors, among which cell-surface components (adhesins) are critical for establishing the contact with host cells. This work in the first par...
Infectious diseases are an existential health threat, potentiated by emerging and re-emerging viruses and increasing bacterial antibiotic resistance. Targeted treatment of infectious diseases requires precision diagnostics, especially in cases where...
Streptococcus suis is a Gram-positive bacterium, which causes sepsis and meningitis in pigs and humans. This review examines the role of known S. suis virulence factors in adhesion and S. suis carbohydrate-based adhesion mechanisms, as well as the in...
The Candida albicans RHR2 gene, which specifies a glycerol biosynthetic enzyme, is required for biofilm formation in vitro and in vivo. Prior studies indicate that RHR2 is ultimately required for expression of adhesin genes, such as ALS1. In fact, RH...
There has been extensive research on structure and function of fungal cell adhesion molecules, but the most of the work has been about adhesins in Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These yeasts are members of a single ascomycete order, a...
Fungal spores, germlings, and mycelia adhere to substrates, including host tissues. The adhesive forces depend on the substrate and on the adhesins, the fungal cell surface proteins. Attachment is often a prerequisite for the invasion of the host, he...
Chaperone-usher fimbrial adhesins are powerful weapons against the uropathogens that allow the establishment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). As the antibiotic therapeutic strategy has become less effective in the treatment of uropathogen-related...
Candida fungal species are the most common fungal opportunistic pathogens. Their ability to form antifungal resistant biofilms contributes to their increasing clinical frequency. These fungi express surface-anchored adhesins including members of the...
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) causes hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome. EHEC infection begins with bacterial adherence to the host intestine via lectin-like adhesins that bind to the intestinal wall. However, EHEC-related...
Escherichia coli is a significant cause of Neonatal Calf Diarrhoea (NCD). Its extensive antigenic diversity, coupled with the ability to acquire antimicrobial resistance determinants, hampers treatment effectiveness and compromises the control measur...
Innovative point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic platforms are desirable to surpass the deficiencies of conventional laboratory diagnostic methods for bacterial infections and to tackle the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis. In this study, a workflow...
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a leading cause of diarrhea in travelers and children in resource-limited countries. ETEC colonization factors, fimbrial tip adhesins and enterotoxins are key virulence factors, and thus have been studied as...
Extracellular matrix components of bacterial biofilms include biopolymers such as polysaccharides, nucleic acids and proteins. Similar to polysaccharides, the secretion of adhesins and other matrix proteins can be regulated by the second messenger cy...
Opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans possesses multiple virulence factors which enable colonization and infection of host tissues. Candida-related infections frequently occur in immunocompromised patients, which is related to an insufficient infla...
Epithelial human blood group antigens (HBGAs) on O-glycans play roles in pathogen binding and the initiation of infection, while similar structures on secretory mucins exert protective functions. These double-faced features of O-glycans in infection...
The Staphylococcus aureus cell wall protein serine rich adhesin for platelets (SraP) belongs to a large surface glycoprotein family of adhesins. Here, we provide experimental evidence that SraP mediates macrophage functions in a human monocyte-derive...
Background: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a zoonotic pathogen causing diarrhea and mortality in infants and livestock. Its numerous serotypes necessitate the urgent development of multivalent vaccines for effective prevention, thereby re...
Biological hydrogen production by microbial cells has been extensively researched as an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly process. In this study, we propose a fast, easy method for immobilizing Enterobacter aerogenes by expressing ataA, w...
Sporothrix schenckii is one of the etiological agents of sporotrichosis, a cutaneous and subcutaneous infection distributed worldwide. Like other medically relevant fungi, its cell wall is a molecular scaffold to display virulence factors, such as pr...
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