RT Book, Section
A1 Britto, Carl D.
A1 Priebe, Gregory P.
A1 Pier, Gerald B.
A2 Grippi, Michael A.
A2 Antin-Ozerkis, Danielle E.
A2 Dela Cruz, Charles S.
A2 Kotloff, Robert M.
A2 Kotton, Camille Nelson
A2 Pack, Allan I.
SR Print(0)
ID 1195014439
T1 Microbial Virulence Factors in Pulmonary Infections
T2 Fishman’s Pulmonary Diseases and Disorders, 6e
YR 2023
FD 2023
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781260473988
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1195014439
RD 2024/04/24
AB Beginning  at  birth,  microbial  organisms  enter  and  leave  the  human  body,  primarily  through  external  and  mucosal  surfaces.  Some  of  these  predominantly  commensal  organisms  become  resident;  others  are  transient;  and  still  others  establish  latent  foci  in  various  tissue  spaces.  Over  a  lifetime,  the  host–pathogen  interactions  that  take  place  in  an  average  human  determine  colonization,  microbiome  composition,  and  susceptibility  to  infections  as  well  as  immune-related  events  such  as  vaccine  responses,  autoimmunity,  and  malignant  transformation.  The  human  host  is  a  reservoir  for  hundreds  of  strains  of  viruses,  thousands  of  bacterial  species,  and  a  scattering  of  fungi  and  parasites.  When  these  organisms  violate  their  niche,  invade,  or  produce  toxic  products,  and  at  the  same  time  overcome  innate  and  adaptive  host  defenses,  virulent  interactions  take  place  and  can  lead  to  disease.  Organisms  have  evolved  a  variety  of  strategies  to  overcome  host  defenses,  evade  the  immune  system,  scavenge  for  nutrients,  eradicate  competing  bacteria,  and  survive  to  spread  to  other  hosts.  At  the  macro  level,  infection  in  the  lung  is  the  culmination  of  a  disruption  in  the  epidemiologic  triad  comprising  host,  agent,  and  environment.  At  the  molecular  level,  new  mechanistic  insights  into  the  interactions  between  host  susceptibility,  pathogen  virulence,  and  environmental  risk  factors  continue  to  be  discovered.