Host-pathogen interactions are the dynamic, reciprocal biological processes that occur between a host organism and an invading pathogen, encompassing molecular recognition, immune sensing, signaling, and effector responses, as well as pathogen strategies for attachment, invasion, replication, and immune evasion. These interactions involve pattern recognition receptors (e.g., Toll-like, NOD-like, and RIG-I-like receptors), pathogen-associated molecular patterns, and downstream signaling pathways that regulate inflammation, cell death, and antimicrobial defenses. Concurrently, pathogens deploy virulence factors, secretion systems, and immune-modulatory molecules to manipulate host cell pathways, subvert immunity, and optimize their survival, replication, and transmission, thereby determining infection outcomes and disease pathogenesis.
A patient with a severe infection is prescribed a potent antibiotic. Hopes for improvement are high, but just after treatment is given, resistance to the drug increases thousands of times. How could this happen?
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 23, 2026
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105
Antibiotics are a medical marvel, but many microbes are gaining the ability to resist and tolerate these therapeutics. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have uncovered how S. pneumoniae adapts to antibiotic ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 22, 2026
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13
Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are working on a promising strategy to make cancer therapies smarter and more precise, using peptides that switch on in the acidic environment surrounding tumors. Francisco ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 21, 2026
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5
St. Louis is a plant science powerhouse, but outside the neatly tended rows of crops and gleaming greenhouses sits another treasure trove of biological data: The wild plants tucked into yards, sidewalk cracks, ditches and ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 20, 2026
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8
Researchers at EMBL Hamburg and collaborators at the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) have mapped how the influenza A virus rewires infected human cells in unprecedented detail. To do this, the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 20, 2026
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107
As sulfur becomes increasingly scarce in soils worldwide, scientists are studying how plants decide whether to invest limited resources in growth or defense.
Plants & Animals
Jul 17, 2026
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9
Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Kiel University (CAU) have examined immune system function in an early-branching animal—a sea anemone. They discovered that the immune systems of these animals ...
Ecology
Jul 16, 2026
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26
Helpful microbes that combat harmful pathogens could be the answer to rising antimicrobial resistance—particularly within built environments such as hospitals, homes and schools.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 15, 2026
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6
The mystery of why some amphibian populations recover following outbreaks of a deadly fungus has been solved in a new study led by University College London (UCL), ZSL and Imperial College London.
Plants & Animals
Jul 14, 2026
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38
Researchers have discovered that a group of viruses known to infect an agriculturally important plant pathogen has remained genetically stable for an astonishing four decades. The discovery of a disease-fighting virus that ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 13, 2026
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15
