Figure 4.

Pathogen interactions with molecules of the host can affect pathogen infectivity. (A) Pathogen interacts with molecular factors from the bloodstream and attracts an interactome to its surface. Components of the pathogen-attracted interactome may include pentraxins such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P, collectins such as mannose-binding lectin (MBL), ficolins such as M-ficolin, complement molecules such as the complement component 1q (C1q), and many other macromolecules (Macromol.) including endogenous cortisol [6,73] and proteins and peptides. (B,C) Particular case where the invading pathogen is a bacterium. (B) An invading bacterium interacts with host cell receptors (in blue) through virulence factors (in green). Virulence factors are molecules that facilitate host invasion by bacterial cells. (C) Molecular interactome components are drawn to pathogenic bacteria and successfully prevent the interaction between the virulence factors of the bacterium and host cell receptors. To generate the figure, we used the PDB entry 1GNH for CRP [81], PDB entry 1RTM for MBP [82], PDB entry 2D39 for M-ficolin [83], PDB entry 1SAC for serum amyloid P [84], and PDB entry 1PK6 for C1q [85].