Host control of persistent Salmonella infection

沙门氏菌的慢性感染可以发展，尽管适当的抗生素治疗。事实上，一些受感染的个体成为终身无症状携带者，在人群中传播感染并保持沙门氏菌感染。在这个研究项目中，我们将研究支持沙门氏菌持久性的免疫学机制。我们将采用混合感染和一系列等基因沙门氏菌菌株来确定持续感染的关键位点，并确定沙门氏菌在宿主中的传播途径。这种混合感染方法将与新生儿感染模型、模拟抗生素治疗后复发感染的模型和自然耐药小鼠菌株相结合。我们的初步实验发现了独立的持续存在的沙门氏菌。因此，我们的目标是剖析分离持久性位点的宿主机制，并确定骨髓细胞亚群的差异，以支持长期感染。我们期望这些实验将对慢性沙门氏菌感染的动力学产生令人兴奋的见解，并有助于改善慢性感染患者的治疗。

Chronic infection with Salmonella can develop despite adequate antibiotic treatment. In fact some infected individuals become life-long asymptomatic carriers spreading the infection and maintaining Salmonella infection in the human population. In this research project we will study the immunological mechanisms that support Salmonella persistence. We will employ mixed infections with a collection of isogenic Salmonella strains to identify key sites for the establishment of persistent infection and to define routes of Salmonella dissemination in the host. This approach of mixed infection will be combined with a neonate infection model, a model mimicking relapsing infection after antibiotic treatment and naturally resistant mouse strains. Our preliminary experiments revealed independent sites of persisting Salmonella. We therefore aim to dissect host mechanisms that segregate sites of persistence and to identify differences in myeloid cell subsets to support long term infection. We expect that these experiments will yield exciting insights into the dynamics of chronic Salmonella infection and help to improve the treatment of chronically infected patients.