Interpreting the Host-Pathogen Dialogue Through Microarrays

Publisher This chapter illustrates the use of DNA microarray technology to understand how microbes interact with host cells, how hosts respond to different infections, and how this dynamic interaction shapes the outcome of disease. Microarrays offer the promise of working toward a “systems based” model of infectious diseases, toward an integrated understanding of pathogenesis that takes into account the adaptive and counter-adaptive strategies of both host and micro-organism. The chapter highlights novel ways in which microarrays are being used as a modern-day translation machine to decipher the host-pathogen lexicon. Interference with host cell processes and the ensuing host response to infection govern the way in which bacteria take command of a cell. These interactions often involve activation of specific cell signaling cascades to facilitate bacterial entry and to prime the intracellular environment, making it compatible with bacterial growth, survival and evasion of host immune responses. Some bacteria colonize their hosts by entering and surviving inside cells of myeloid and epitheliod lineages, thereby subverting host cell defence mechanisms and providing a niche to gain access to deeper tissues and organs.