Phagocytosis of filamentous targets

身体抵御外来威胁和清理自身细胞碎片的策略是隔离和摧毁它们。这是由来自免疫系统的专门细胞，吞噬细胞，通过称为吞噬作用的过程进行的。在吞噬过程中，吞噬细胞吞噬并吃掉它们的目标，然后在细胞内降解。为了实现其功能，吞噬细胞必须处理不同组成，形状和纹理的目标。 今天，许多吞噬作用的研究集中在目标的组成。然而，很少有人知道如何目标的物理性质影响吞噬过程。特别令人感兴趣的是长的和纤维状的目标，因为研究表明，这种形式的微生物和惰性颗粒都不容易被吞噬细胞摄取。因此，这些类型的目标有利于毒性作用，例如石棉和玻璃纤维，或者感染细菌的持续存在，例如UPEC大肠杆菌。 我研究的主要目标是调查为什么丝状目标，包括细菌和惰性颗粒，成为吞噬作用的障碍。 我们希望这个项目将有助于更好地了解控制吞噬作用的机制和病原体逃避这一过程的方式。我们还希望更好地了解石棉纤维毒性背后的机制。从技术的角度来看，这些发现可以为设计更安全的纤维工程材料（如纳米管）提供知识，这些材料具有巨大的技术和经济潜力。

The body's strategy to protect against foreign threats and clean its own cellular debris is to isolate and destroy them. This is carry out by specialized cells from the immune system, phagocytes, through a process called phagocytosis. During phagocytosis, phagocytes engulf and eat their targets, which are then degraded inside the cell. To fulfill their function, phagocytes must process targets of different composition, shape and texture. Today, much of phagocytosis research has focused on the composition of the target. However, little is known about how target's physical properties affect the phagocytic process. Of particular interest are long and fibrous targets because studies have shown that both microbes and inert particles of that form can not be easily ingested by phagocytes. Therefore, these type of targets favor toxic effects, as is the case for asbestos and glass fibers, or the persistence of infections bacteria, like UPEC E.coli. The main objective of my research will be to investigate why filamentous targets, both bacterial and inert particles, become a hurdle for phagocytosis. We expect that this project will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms that control phagocytosis and the ways utilized by pathogens to escape this process. We also expect to reach a better understanding of the mechanism behind the toxicity of asbestos fibers. From a technological perspective, such findings could contribute knowledge to the design of more safe fibrous engineered materials, like nanotubes, which are of an enormous technological and economical potential.