Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Some pathogens can begin an infection with only a small number of cells in the initial inoculum. For example, enterohemorrhagic strains of Escherichia coli require an infective dose of only about ten cells. By contrast, other pathogens, such as Vibrio cholerae, require a large number of cells (10 3 to 10 8 cells) in the inoculum to successfully infect a host (Figure 1). We propose a new hypothesis to explain the wide diversity of infective dose among pathogens. In our hypothesis, the biochemical mechanisms of pathogenesis, which typically facilitate invasion by evading host immune defenses, explain much of the variation in infective dose. If these pathogenic mechanisms act locally, then we predict that the infective dose will be low; if the pathogenic molecules tend to diffuse and act at a distance, then we predict that the infective dose
Source: PLoS Pathogens
Authors: Paul Schmid-Hempel, Steven A Frank
Language: English
Subfield: Microbiology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,043
OpenAlex ID: W2062403686