The action “Characterisation of permissive and non-permissive phagosome environments during Salmonella systemic infection” looks at the interaction between pathogens and their hosts during bacterial infections. Infectious disease studies often overlook the complexity of immune responses. However, bacterial infections are characterized by complex interactions between pathogen and host. These interactions are disparate and allow some bacterial cells to survive attacks from the immune system. Additionally, it has been shown that some bacteria are protected from antibiotic treatment due to specific host factors surrounding them. The aim of this project is to highlight specific host and pathogen responses in order to identify conditions that allow pathogens to survive and spread and, ultimately, to close these permissive niches.
Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health. When a bacterium becomes resistant to several antibiotics, it can become very difficult to find a way to treat that specific infection. Additionally, the person infected can easily spread the same multi-drug resistant pathogen to other people. It is becoming increasingly challenging to identify new, efficient drugs and, therefore, novel control strategies to synergise with the immune system are urgently required.
The aim of this action was to identify potential permissive conditions that allow pathogen survival and spread. Specific objectives of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) have been to (a) develop a new approach of phagosome isolation by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and combine it with sensitive high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine host protein markers over the infection; (b) highlight key bacterial strategies for intracellular survival, potentially identifying novel antimicrobial targets.
