Biology of Infectious Disease

ISBN-13: 9783031389405 / Twarda / 2023 / 338 str.

Michael G. Milgroom

Spis treści

​Chapter 1: Introduction to infectious disease

Current impact of human infectious diseases: the good news

Emergence and reemergence of human infectious diseases: the bad news

Infectious diseases in animals 

Infectious diseases in plants

Biology and the need for better understanding infectious diseases

Chapter 2. Historical background on germ theory

Perceptions of infectious diseases before the germ theory

Early contributions to germ theory

Acceptance of the germ theory: Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch

Major advancements after the acceptance of germ theory

Contributions of germ theory to combating disease

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)

Vector control

Vaccination

Antibiotics

Chapter 3. Host-microbe interactions and infectious disease

Microbes as pathogens

Basic concepts in host-microbe interactions 

Temporal progression of a host-microbe interaction

The diversity of host-microbe interactions

“What is a pathogen?”

Damage-response framework 

An interaction-centric perspective on disease

The environmental context of host-microbe interactions

Chapter 4. Viruses

Morphology

Viral genomes

Viral gene expression

Viral infection cycle

Positive-sense ssRNA viruses

Negative-sense ssRNA viruses

Bacteriophages

Retroviruses

Viral evolution

Reassortment in Influenza A virus

Evolutionary origin of viruses

Prions

Chapter 5. Bacteria

Morphology

Biofilms

Bacterial genomes

Horizontal gene transfer

Bacterial infection cycles

E. coli

Staphylococcus aureus

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Bacterial plant pathogens

Chapter 6. Protozoa

Morphology

Reproduction

Genomics

Protozoan life cycles

Entamoeba histolytica

Plasmodium falciparum

Toxoplasma gondii

Trypanosoma brucei and Trypanosoma cruzi

Chapter 7. Fungi

Morphology

Reproduction

Genomics

Fungal pathogenesis

Aspergillosis

Fungal pathogens of plants

Fungal pathogens of insects

Microsporidia

Emerging fungal diseases of wildlife and trees

Oomycetes

Chapter 8. Helminths

Nematodes (roundworms)

Morphology

Reproduction

Genomics

Life cycles

Plant-parasitic nematodes

Insect-pathogenic nematodes

Platyhelminthes (flatworms)

Morphology

Reproduction

Life cycles

Cestode (tapeworms) life cycles

Trematode (flukes) life cycles

Chapter 9. Host defenses and immunity: Vertebrates

An overview of innate and acquired immunity 

Innate immunity

Acquired immunity

Innate immunity in humans

Destruction of invading microbes

Inflammatory responses

Surveillance by antigen-presenting cells

Adaptive immunity in humans

Overview of adaptive immunity

Structure of recognition molecules in adaptive immunity

Diversity of antigen detection

Activation of T cells and B cells

Humoral immunity

Cell-mediated immunity

Immunologic memory

Concluding remarks

Chapter 10. Host defenses and immunity: Invertebrates, plants, and prokaryotes

Innate immunity

Innate immunity in invertebrates

Innate immunity in plants

Innate immunity in prokaryotes

Acquired immunity in invertebrates, plants, and fungi: RNAi 

Acquired immunity in bacteria and archaea: Prokaryotic Argonaute (pAGO) proteins and CRISPR/Cas

Chapter 11. Microbial suppression and evasion of host defenses

Evasion of immunity

Survival inside immune cells

Antigenic variation

Suppression of immunity

Effectors to inactivate defenses

Suppression of RNAi

Chapter 12. Antimicrobial resistance

A brief history of antibiotic discovery

Genomic approaches to antibiotic discovery

Classification of antibiotics

Resistance to β-lactam antibiotics

Mechanisms of resistance 

Inactivation of antibiotics

Target site modification

Reduced antibiotic uptake

Increased efflux of antibiotics

Mobile genetic elements and horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance  

Intracellular movement of antibiotic resistance genes

Intercellular movement of antibiotic resistance genes

Antibiotic resistance acquired by mutations in chromosomal genes

The Resistome

Selection for antibiotic resistance 

Antibiotic use selects for resistance 

Clinical use of antibiotics

Agricultural use of antibiotics

Resistance to other antimicrobial drugs

Antivirals

Antifungals

Antiprotozoals

Anthelmintics

Should you take the full course of antibiotics or other antimicrobials?

The outlook for a post-antibiotic era 

Chapter 13. Microbiomes

Microbiota in the development of immune systems

Functional diversity in the microbiome

The gut microbiome

Outside-in and inside-out perspectives

Effects on immunity outside the gut

Microbiomes: blurring the distinction between chronic and infectious disease

The hygiene hypothesis

Manipulating the microbiome

Fecal transplants

Microbiota therapy

Paradigm shift in infectious disease and immunity: the microbiome

Chapter 14. Vaccines, vaccination, and immunization

Passive immunity

Immune responses to vaccines

Types of vaccines

First-generation vaccines

Second-generation vaccines

Third-generation vaccines

Antigenic variation in the context of vaccines

Herd immunity and pathogen eradication

Vaccine testing and safety

Vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vax movement 

Chapter 15. Vector biology

Definition of a vector 

Vector-borne pathogens

Hematophagous arthropods

Mosquitoes

Anopheles

Aedes

Culex

Other hematophagous flies

Sand flies

Tsetse flies

Black flies and biting midges

Ticks

Fleas, lice, and true bugs 

Fleas

Lice

True bugs

Vectors of plant pathogens

Vector-microbe interactions

Vector competence and vectorial capacity

Vector control

Biological control of mosquitoes

Sterile insect technique

Incompatible insect technique

Genetic modification of vectors

Transgenic sterile insect techniques

Release of insects carrying a dominant lethal (RIDL)

RNA interference (RNAi)

Gene drive systems

Chapter 16. Epidemiology and SIR models 

An overview of models and their applications to infectious diseases

SIR models

Epidemic thresholds and the basic reproductive number, R0

Herd immunity

More complex SIR models

Demography—adding births and deaths

The SEIR model—modeling the latent period

Additional complexities in SIR models

Modeling COVID-19 

Chapter 17. Evolution of pathogenicity and virulence

Origins of virulence factors

Horizontal gene transfer of virulence factors

Conventional wisdom about virulence

Virulence-transmission tradeoff hypothesis

Coevolution of hosts and pathogens: the Red Queen

Chapter 18. Disease ecology and emergence 

Pathogen reservoirs

Zoonoses, spillovers, and emergence of new diseases

Historical disease emergence

Host specialization and switching

Old World pathogens in the New World

Biodiversity and infectious disease

Future pandemics and pandemic preparedness

Globalization and infectious disease

Climate change and disease emergence

One Health, a holistic view of disease ecology

Chapter 19. The COVID-19 pandemic: A case study

Virology of coronaviruses

The origin of SARS-CoV-2

Pathology and treatment of COVID-19

Epidemiology of the COVID-19 pandemic

Vaccine development and herd immunity

Virus variants and pandemic dynamics

The next coronavirus pandemic?

O autorze

Michael Milgroom joined the faculty in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University in 1987. His research interests were in epidemiology, ecology, genetics, evolution, and population genetics of fungal plant pathogens. For most of his academic career, he taught graduate-level and undergraduate-level courses in plant pathology. In 2015, he published a textbook titled Population Biology of Plant Pathogens: Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution, aimed at graduate students in plant pathology, which combined his teaching and research interests. In 2012 his teaching broadened beyond plant pathology to offer courses of interest to general biology students, particularly pre-med and pre-public health students. He teamed up with a colleague to teach “Biology of infectious disease: From molecules to ecosystems”, which inspired this book. He also co-taught a course for two years titled, “Infectious disease ecology and evolution.” Milgroom retired from Cornell in January 2020—just as Covid-19 was being reported from Wuhan, China—and began writing this book based on his teaching experience.

Blurb

This textbook provides a broad introduction to the biological processes underlying infectious diseases in a range of hosts and pathogens. The text covers topics at all levels of biological organization, from the molecular and cellular level, organismal level, and population and ecosystem level, and goes well beyond infectious diseases of humans. The details of how microbes interact with their hosts are unique for each interaction, but emphasis is on the common principles of host-pathogen interactions that result in disease. 

Biology of Infectious Disease: From Molecules to Ecosystems is aimed at undergraduate and early graduate-level students in biology or public health, including pre-medical and pre-public-health students, who are interested in a broad introduction to infectious disease but do not have any previous background in microbiology or immunology.