Bacterial Evasion of Host Immune Responses

Comprehensive review of current research concerning how bacteria evade immunity and hence cause infection.

Over the past decade researchers have shown that bacteria have evolved many ways of evading immunity and hence causing infection. Our present understanding of these mechanisms is described in this book, which will appeal to graduate students and researchers in microbiology, immunology, as well as in pharmacology and molecular medicine.Our survival as multicellular organisms requires the constant surveillance of our internal and external (mucosal) environments by the multifarious elements of the innate and acquired systems of immunity. The objective of this surveillance, expensive as it is to the organisms, is to recognise and kill invading microorganisms. Over the past fifty years the cells and mediators involved in our immune defences have been painstakingly identified. However, it is only relatively recently that the ability of microorganisms to evade immunity has been recognised and investigated. Bacterial Evasion of Host Immune Responses introduces the reader to the mechanisms used by bacteria to evade both humoral and cellular immune responses, using systems ranging in complexity from the simple quorum sensing molecules - acyl homoserine lactones - to the supramolecular syringe-like devices of type III secretion systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in microbiology, immunology, pharmacology and molecular medicine.