Pathogen evolution and immune competence

[Guest Brigid]

Hello everyone,

 

Hello! I am new to this forum, and I have an immunology question. I have been looking through the scientific literature for help with little success!

 

Here it is: Does anyone know of a research that explores the relationship between the evolution of a pathogen and the general immune status of the host? In particular, I am interested in how the virulence of a pathogen (I am most interested in bacteria) may be changed while residing in a host that is immunocompromised. Might the pathogenicity/virulence be changed? Increased? Decreased?

 

Any references or insight would be appreciated!

 

Cheers,

Brigid

[LucidDreamer]

Looking up multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria formed mostly in hospitals might be useful. Shouldn’t be too hard to find information about this. Look it up in google and then in pubmed. This could be a good launching point to find what you need. They should have lots of useful phrases and references that would help you find other related information.

[Guest Brigid]

Thank you LucidDreamer for your reply. I have looked a little into the antibiotic resistance literature and I will continue to do so, but my interests are more in wildlife species (in other words, no evolution pressure from the presence of antibiotics). Specifically, I am interested in how pathogens may evolve differently in natural populations with varying degrees of immunocompetence. I will keep looking!

 

Thanks