Vita-PAMPs: Signatures of microbial viability

Diego Mourao-Sa, Soumit Roy, J. Magarian Blander

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Can the innate immune system detect and respond to microbial viability? Using bacteria as a model, we found that indeed the very essence of microbial infectivity, viability itself, can be detected, and notably, in the absence of the activity of virulence factors. The microbial molecule that serves as the signature of viability is bacterial messenger RNA (mRNA), common to all bacteria, and without which bacteria cannot survive. Prokaryotic mRNAs also differ from eukaryotic mRNAs in several ways, and as such, these features all fulfill the criteria, and more, for a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) as originally proposed by Charles Janeway. Because these mRNAs are lost from dead bacteria, they belong to a special class of PAMPs, which we call vita-PAMPs. Here we discuss the possible receptors and pathways involved in the detection of bacterial mRNAs, and thus microbial viability. We also consider examples of vita-PAMPs other than bacterial mRNA.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCrossroads Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity IV
PublisherSpringer New York LLC
Pages1-8
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)9781461462163
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Publication series

NameAdvances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
Volume785
ISSN (Print)0065-2598

Keywords

  • Bacterial messenger RNA
  • Inflammasome
  • Pattern recognition
  • Toll-like receptor
  • Type I interferon
  • Vaccine
  • Virulence factors

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