Abstract
Francisella tularensis (Ft), a small Gram-negative facultative intracellular bacterium, is the causative agent of tularemia. Disease is transmitted to human and animals mostly by vectors such as ticks, flies and mosquitoes. Tularemia is endemic in many parts of the northern hemisphere and has been detected in over 250 animals. Ft can invade many organs in the host body, such a liver, eyes, lung and central nervous system. Neural form of tularemia is rare, but often ends with fatal consequences (Gangat, 2007; van de Beek et al., 2007). One of the crucial steps in CNS invasion is the crossing of blood-brain barrier (BBB), while, bacterial translocation initiates with their transient adhesion on brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs). Present study is aimed at investigation of the molecules responsible for adhesion of Ft to BMECs. These molecules could be the important candidates in the development of prophylactic drugs against meningitides caused by Francisella.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gangat, N., 2007. Cerebral abscesses complicating tularemia meningitis. Scand J Infect Dis 39: 258-261.
Pulzova, L., Bhide, M.R. and Andrej, K., 2009. Pathogen translocation across the blood-brain barrier. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 57: 203-213.
Shevchenko, A., Wilm, M., Vorm, O. and Mann, M., 1996. Mass spectrometric sequencing of proteins silver-stained polyacrylamide gels. Anal Chem 68: 850-858.
Staunton, D.E., Dustin, M.L., Erickson, H.P. and Springer, T.A., 1990. The arrangement of the immunoglobulin-like domains of ICAM-1 and the binding sites for LFA-1 and rhinovirus. Cell 61: 243-254.
Van de Beek, D., Steckelberg, J.M., Marshall, W.F., Kijpittayarit, S. and Wijdicks, E.F., 2007. Tularemia with brain abscesses. Neurology 68: 531.
Veszelka, S., Pasztoi, M., Farkas, A.E., Krizbai, I., Ngo, T.K., Niwa, M., Abraham, C.S. and Deli, M.A., 2007. Pentosan polysulfate protects brain endothelial cells against bacterial lipopolysaccharide-induced damages. Neurochem Int 50: 219-228.
Acknowledgments
Work was performed in collaboration with Dr. E. Chakurkar, at ICAR Goa India, mainly for transfection and in-vivo protein production. Financial support was from APVV-0036-10 and VEGA–1/0054/12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Wageningen Academic Publishers
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bencurova, E., Mlynarcik, P., Pulzova, L., Kovac, A., Bhide, M.R. (2013). PilE4 may contributes in the adhesion of Francisella to brain microvascular endothelial cells. In: de Almeida, A., et al. Farm animal proteomics 2013. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-776-9_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-776-9_27
Publisher Name: Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen
Online ISBN: 978-90-8686-776-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)