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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Single Cell Measurements of Vacuolar Rupture Caused by Intracellular Pathogens
Published on: June 12, 2013
Caveolae as portals of entry for microbes
1Departments of Pathology and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Abstract:
Many pathogens, including many traditionally extracellular microbes, now appear capable of entry into host cells with limited loss of viability. A portal of entry shared by some bacteria, bacterial toxins, viruses and parasites are caveolae (or lipid rafts), which are involved in the import and intracellular translocation of macromolecules in host cells. A requirement for caveolae-mediated endocytosis of microbes appears to be that the respective receptor is a constituent of caveolae or must move to caveolae following ligation.
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