Keeping the host alive - lessons from obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens.

Mammals have evolved sophisticated host cell death signaling pathways as an important immune mechanism to recognize and eliminate cell intruders before they establish their replicative niche. However, intracellular bacterial pathogens that have co-evolved with their host have developed a multitude of tactics to counteract this defense strategy to facilitate their survival and replication. This requires manipulation of pro-death and pro-survival host signaling pathways during infection. Obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens are organisms that absolutely require an eukaryotic host to survive and replicate, and therefore they have developed virulence factors to prevent diverse forms of host cell death and conserve their replicative niche. This review encapsulates our current understanding of these host-pathogen interactions by exploring the most relevant findings of Anaplasma spp., Chlamydia spp., Rickettsia spp. and Coxiella burnetii modulating host cell death pathways. A detailed comprehension of the molecular mechanisms through which these obligate intracellular pathogens manipulate regulated host cell death will not only increase the current understanding of these difficult-to-study pathogens but also provide insights into new tools to study regulated cell death and the development of new therapeutic approaches to control infection.

Antimetastatic effect of the pharmacological inhibition of serine/arginine-rich protein kinases (SRPK) in murine melanoma.

Moreira GA, Lima GDA, Siqueira RPS, Barros MVDA, Adjanohoun ALM, Santos VC, Barbosa EAA, Loterio RK, Paiva JC, Gonçalves VHS, Viol LCS, Marques-da-Silva EA, Silva Júnior A, Almeida MR, Fietto JLR, Machado-Neves M, Ferreira RS, Teixeira RRT, Bressan GCB

Scenedesmus sp. cultivation using commercial-grade ammonium sources.

Soares J, Loterio RK, Rosa RM, Santos MO, Nascimento AG, Santos NT, Williams TCR, Nunes-Nesi A, Martins MA

Comparative evaluation of different preservation methods for cyanobacterial strains.

Esteves-Ferreira AA, Corrêa DM, Carneiro APS, Rosa RM, Loterio R, Araújo WL.