Meyer T F
Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie, Tübingen.
Immun Infekt. 1989 Aug;17(4):113-23.
The early stages of an infection with pathogenic Neisseriae are determined by receptor-mediated events that finally lead to the attachment and invasion of human mucous tissues. The factors participating in this process, the pili, OPA proteins, and perhaps lipopolysaccharide (LPS), are subject to complex genetic changes that enable the pathogens to produce multiple variant forms of these factors. Antigenic variation of the pathogenic Neisseriae permits both, the escape from the human immune response and the interaction with different cells and tissues of the human host. One of the intrinsic mechanisms of antigenic variation, i.e. genetic transformation, allows exchange and recombination of virulence genes between independent Neisseria strains in multiply infected individuals. Factors, such as IgA protease, alpha-factor, and the meningococcal capsule are attributed with further striking properties, and thus render the pathogenic Neisseriae as an excellent model for the investigation of bacterial virulence.
致病性奈瑟菌感染的早期阶段由受体介导的事件决定，这些事件最终导致对人体黏液组织的附着和侵袭。参与这一过程的因素，菌毛、OPA蛋白，可能还有脂多糖（LPS），会经历复杂的基因变化，使病原体能够产生这些因素的多种变体形式。致病性奈瑟菌的抗原变异既使其能够逃避人体免疫反应，又能与人类宿主的不同细胞和组织相互作用。抗原变异的内在机制之一，即基因转化，允许在多重感染个体的独立奈瑟菌菌株之间交换和重组毒力基因。诸如IgA蛋白酶、α因子和脑膜炎球菌荚膜等因素具有进一步显著的特性，因此使致病性奈瑟菌成为研究细菌毒力的优秀模型。
