How whooping cough evades the immune system to infect vaccinated hosts

Many pathogens are able to manipulate the signaling pathways responsible for the generation of host immune responses.

In an article in PLoS Computational Biology we examined a respiratory infection system in which disruption of host immune functions or of bacterial factors changes the dynamics of the infection.

We synthesized the network of interactions between host immune components and two closely related bacteria in the genus Bordetella.

Dynamic models of the network compared the effect of the species-specific virulence factors on disrupting the immune response during their infection of naïve, antibody-treated, diseased or convalescent hosts.

The model offers predictions regarding cytokine regulation, key immune components and clearance of secondary infections; we experimentally validate two of these predictions.

This type of modeling provides new insights into the virulence, pathogenesis and host adaptation of disease-causing microorganisms and allows system level analysis that is not always possible using traditional methods.