Viral Interactions with Anatomic Cellular Barriers–Overcoming Borders to Invade Tissues
A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Pathogens".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 7923
Special Issue Editors
2. Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
Interests: cell host and viral interactions; endothelial cell biology; virus pathogenesis; arboviruses, flavivirus; vector control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: molecular virology; cell biology; viral immunology; zoonotic and vector-borne diseases
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the human body, innate and adaptive immune responses are continuously fighting against invasive microbes attempting to gain access to replicative niches in host tissues leading to cell infection, tissue damage, and disease. External and internal cellular barriers such as the skin, mucous membranes, and the endothelium lining the inner side of blood vessels constitute anatomic barriers of the innate immune system that collectively provide physical and physiological protection that separates the internal milieu from the external environment. Pathogens must traverse these barriers to gain access to their many replicative niches within the host, and one such anatomic barrier is formed by a layer of endothelial cells at the interface between blood and tissues. Cellular barriers such as the blood-brain barrier, the microvasculature, the placental barrier, the pulmonary barrier, the intestinal barrier, and the blood-testis barrier, among others, represent a critical step of host defenses to restrict blood-borne virus invasion into local tissues and further dissemination into organs. Although these complex anatomical barriers are evolutionarily proven to be successful strategies of host defense, many viral pathogens have evolved elegant subversive mechanisms to overcome these barriers, resulting in disruption of endothelial barrier integrity and tissue dissemination. Specific examples of the consequences of virus-mediated endothelial barrier disruption include congenital viral transmission from mother-to-fetus during pregnancy and neuro-invasion of the central nervous system leading to viral encephalitis. Some of the strategies adopted by viruses to promote endothelial barrier disruption include manipulation of host membranes and cellular metabolism, production, and secretion of viral factors which directly promote tissue invasion resulting in breakdown of host adhesion molecules or cell-to-cell contacts, and activation of inflammatory responses. Our current knowledge of these complex virus-host interactions is limited and remains a critical area for further investigation which will enhance our understanding of viral pathogenesis as well as the development of novel antiviral compounds and vaccine candidates.
This Special Issue of Pathogens will focus on understanding the strategies used by viral pathogens to interact with and circumvent these host barrier interfaces leading to invasion of tissues which results in immune dysregulation and disease.
Dr. Henry Puerta-Guardo
Dr. Scott B. Biering
Dr. Dustin R. Glasner
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Viruses
- host cellular barriers
- endothelial cells
- immune evasion
- tissue invasion
- viral pathogenesis
- virus dissemination
- disease
