Publikationsdatenbank

From Entry to Early Dissemination:
Toxoplasma gondii’s Initial Encounter with its Host (2019)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Delgado Betancourt, Estefania

Hamid, Benjamin (WE 6)

Fabian, Benedikt T

Klotz, Christian

Hartmann, Susanne (WE 6)

Seeber, Frank

Quelle

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Bandzählung: 9

Seiten: Article 46

ISSN: 2235-2988

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2019.00046/full

DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00046

Pubmed: 30891433

Kontakt

Institut für Immunologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51834
immunologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic intracellular parasite, able to infect any warm-blooded animal via ingestion of infective stages, either contained in tissue cysts or oocysts released into the environment. While immune responses during infection are well-studied, there is still limited knowledge about the very early infection events in the gut tissue after infection via the oral route. Here we briefly discuss differences in host-specific responses following infection with oocyst-derived sporozoites vs. tissue cyst-derived bradyzoites. A focus is given to innate intestinal defense mechanisms and early immune cell events that precede T. gondii's dissemination in the host. We propose stem cell-derived intestinal organoids as a model to study early events of natural host-pathogen interaction. These offer several advantages such as live cell imaging and transcriptomic profiling of the earliest invasion processes. We additionally highlight the necessity of an appropriate large animal model reflecting human infection more closely than conventional infection models, to study the roles of dendritic cells and macrophages during early infection.