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Telomere components as potential therapeutic targets for treating microbial pathogen infections
1Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University Cleveland, OH, USA.
Frontiers in Oncology
|November 6, 2012
Summary
Telomeres regulate surface antigen expression in microbial pathogens, aiding immune evasion. Targeting these conserved telomere components offers a promising therapeutic strategy against infections.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Molecular Biology
- Immunology
Background:
- Microbial pathogens utilize antigenic variation to evade host immune responses.
- Surface antigen genes are often located at subtelomeric regions in these pathogens.
- Telomere components are increasingly recognized for their regulatory roles in virulence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the critical role of telomeres in microbial pathogen virulence regulation.
- To identify pathogen telomere components as potential therapeutic drug targets.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent studies on telomere function in microbial pathogens.
- Comparative analysis of telomere protein homology between pathogens and humans.
Main Results:
- Telomere components are crucial for regulating surface antigen expression and thus, pathogen virulence.
- Despite conserved functions, pathogen and human telomere proteins exhibit low sequence homology.
- Pathogen telomere proteins are essential for survival and their disruption impairs antigenic variation.
Conclusions:
- Telomeres play a significant role in the virulence of microbial pathogens.
- The low sequence homology between pathogen and human telomere proteins makes them attractive drug targets.
- Inhibiting pathogen telomere components can disrupt antigenic variation, aiding immune clearance of infections.
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