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Immunity to Rickettsiae (Redux)

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Rickettsial Infection and Immunity

Part of the book series: Infectious Agents and Pathogenesis ((IAPA))

Summary

The obligate intracellular bacteria that we call rickettsiae obviously share many biological traits with the other intracellular bacteria. For example, it has been shown that both L. monocytogenes and R. rickettsii move through the cell cytoplasm and from cell to cell by an identical technique of actin polymerization.69 It is also clear that the intracellular bacteria share many aspects of the immune response, and this is not surprising. From the existing data it can be concluded that immunity to primary rickettsial infections characteristically is a THl-type cellular immunity. Further, IFN-γ is probably the most important cytokine for clearance of the organisms, although clearly not the only cytokine of importance. This statement is apparently true for the members of the genera Rickettsia and Ehrlichia, as well as for C. burnetii. Infection with these organisms has been noted to be associated with an immunosuppression, and this observation is largely unstudied. Perhaps the more important issue is the mechanisms that these organisms use to evade the immune system rather than the mechanisms of immunity that clear the organisms.

Probably the most compelling basic question that can be approached with the use of rickettsial model systems is how the immune system interacts with the vascular endothelium in terms of antigen presentation by the endothelial cell and T-cell interactions with the infected endothelial cell. It is hoped this review of the immune response to rickettsiae will inspire scientists to tackle these and other questions.

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  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences College of Pharmacy, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, 99164-6510

    Thomas R. Jerrels

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  1. University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

    Burt Anderson  & Herman Friedman  & 

  2. University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Mauro Bendinelli

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Jerrels, T.R. (2002). Immunity to Rickettsiae (Redux). In: Anderson, B., Friedman, H., Bendinelli, M. (eds) Rickettsial Infection and Immunity. Infectious Agents and Pathogenesis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46804-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46804-2_2

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