Telomere components as potential therapeutic targets for treating microbial pathogen infections.
Telomere components as potential therapeutic targets for treating microbial pathogen infections.
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DOI：
10.3389/fonc.2012.00156
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发表时间：
2012
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Li B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Li B
在许多微生物病原体经历抗原变异以逃避宿主的免疫攻击时，编码表面抗原的基因位于亚端粒位点，并且最近的研究表明端粒组分在这些病原体中的一些中的表面抗原表达的调节中起重要作用，这表明端粒在微生物病原体毒力调节中起关键作用。重要的是，尽管端粒蛋白组分及其功能在很大程度上从原生动物到哺乳动物是保守的，但微生物病原体和人类中的端粒蛋白同源物具有低序列同源性。因此，病原体端粒组分是治疗方法的潜在药物靶点，因为首先，大多数端粒蛋白对于病原体的生存是必需的，其次，病原体抗原变异机制的破坏将有助于宿主的免疫系统清除感染。
In a number of microbial pathogens that undergoes antigenic variation to evade the host’s immune attack, genes encoding surface antigens are located at subtelomeric loci, and recent studies have revealed that telomere components play important roles in regulation of surface antigen expression in several of these pathogens, indicating that telomeres play critical roles in microbial pathogen virulence regulation. Importantly, although telomere protein components and their functions are largely conserved from protozoa to mammals, telomere protein homologs in microbial pathogens and humans have low sequence homology. Therefore, pathogen telomere components are potential drug targets for therapeutic approaches because first, most telomere proteins are essential for pathogens’ survival, and second, disruption of pathogens’ antigenic variation mechanism would facilitate host’s immune system to clear the infection.