The systems biology of host pathogen interactions

• Main Author: Nikolai Petrovsky
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council
• Series: Journal of Excipients and Food Chemicals
• Online Access: http://jefc.scholasticahq.com/article/1091-the-systems-biology-of-host-pathogen-interactions.pdf

Infectious diseases constitute a major public health burden, particularly in developing countries. Amongst the pathogens afflicting humans, malaria, HIV, shigellosis and tuberculosis (TB) cause a large number of deaths. Whilst antivirals, antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs have all helped to reduce the burden of disease, problems of drug resistance are increasingly common, presenting the need to come up with alternative approaches to disease prevention. Ideally, effective prophylactic vaccines would be developed against each of these infections, but unfortunately with the exception of TB, no vaccine is currently available against the other three infections. Baring a breakthrough, coming for example from the application of newer more potent adjuvants to vaccine candidates, new paradigms are needed to help tackle these infectious diseases.