An integrated approach to understanding mucosal immunity to Campylobacter infection in the chicken

该项目采用了一种新的工作方式，通过将建模和实验方法结合在一起，以一种既通知项目的每个分支的方式，但更重要的是将它们结合在一起，使我们能够更好地理解粘膜免疫反应对细菌病原体空肠弯曲杆菌的复杂相互作用。空肠梭菌是世界范围内食源性细菌性肠胃炎最常见的原因，绝大多数病例与鸡肉有关。尽管事实上70%的英国零售鸡肉受到弯曲杆菌的污染，但我们对肉鸡感染生物学的了解却非常有限。我们最近的工作已经开始阐明鸡对感染的先天免疫反应，并通过贝叶斯结构方程建模将这些研究的数据与建模方法相结合，使我们能够确定鸡品种之间的免疫差异，这些差异是感染表型差异的基础。该项目将建立在先前的工作基础上，模拟空肠梭菌感染期间的先天、适应性和调节反应，以确定哪些与鸡的长期定植有关，哪些与感染清除有关，哪些与肠道健康状况不佳有关。使用这种综合方法使我们能够独特地了解什么是重要的，以及如何将其用于疫苗等控制或改善鸡肠道健康，从而改善动物健康和福利，并最终减少与鸡肉生产相关的弯曲杆菌负担。

This project uses a new way of working, by combining modelling and experimental approaches together in a way that both informs each arm of the project, but more importantly brings them together allowing us to better understand the complex interactions of the mucosal immune response to the bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. C. jejuni is the most common cause of foodborne bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, with the overwhelming majority of cases associated with chicken. Despite the fact that around 70% of UK retail chicken is contaminated with Campylobacter our understanding of its infection biology in the broiler chicken in surprisingly limited. Our recent work has begun to elucidate the innate immune response to infection of the chicken and combining data from these studies with a modelling approach through Bayesian structural equation modelling has allowed us to identify immunological differences between chicken breeds that underlie differences in infection phenotype. This project will build upon previous work to model innate, adaptive and regulatory responses during C. jejuni infection to determine which are involved in long-term colonization of the chicken, those associated with clearance of infection and those with poor gut health. Using this combined approach gives us a unique insight as to what is important and how this could be utilized in controls such as vaccines or make improvements to chicken gut health thereby improving animal health and welfare and ultimately reduce the burden of Campylobacter associated with chicken production.