Han Bing, Takvorian Peter M, Weiss Louis M
Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Front Microbiol. 2020 Feb 18;11:172. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00172. eCollection 2020.
Microsporidia are found worldwide and both vertebrates and invertebrates can serve as hosts for these organisms. While microsporidiosis in humans can occur in both immune competent and immune compromised hosts, it has most often been seen in the immune suppressed population, e.g., patients with advanced HIV infection, patients who have had organ transplantation, those undergoing chemotherapy, or patients using other immune suppressive agents. Infection can be associated with either focal infection in a specific organ (e.g., keratoconjunctivitis, cerebritis, or hepatitis) or with disseminated disease. The most common presentation of microsporidiosis being gastrointestinal infection with chronic diarrhea and wasting syndrome. In the setting of advanced HIV infection or other cases of profound immune deficiency microsporidiosis can be extremely debilitating and carries a significant mortality risk. Microsporidia are transmitted as spores which invade host cells by a specialized invasion apparatus the polar tube (PT). This review summarizes recent studies that have provided information on the composition of the spore wall and PT, as well as insights into the mechanism of invasion and interaction of the PT and spore wall with host cells during infection.
微孢子虫在全球范围内均有发现，脊椎动物和无脊椎动物均可作为这些生物体的宿主。虽然人类微孢子虫病在免疫功能正常和免疫受损的宿主中均可发生，但最常见于免疫抑制人群，例如晚期HIV感染患者、接受器官移植的患者、正在接受化疗的患者或使用其他免疫抑制剂的患者。感染可能与特定器官的局部感染（如角膜结膜炎、脑炎或肝炎）或播散性疾病有关。微孢子虫病最常见的表现是胃肠道感染伴慢性腹泻和消瘦综合征。在晚期HIV感染或其他严重免疫缺陷的情况下，微孢子虫病可能极其虚弱，并伴有显著的死亡风险。微孢子虫以孢子的形式传播，孢子通过一种特殊的入侵装置——极管（PT）侵入宿主细胞。本综述总结了最近的研究，这些研究提供了有关孢子壁和极管组成的信息，以及对感染期间极管和孢子壁与宿主细胞的入侵机制和相互作用的见解。
