A drinks reception will take place following the lecture.
The 2013 Emmanuelle Caron Lecture
Typhoid fever remains a serious global health concern, resulting in more than 200,000 annual deaths, mostly in developing countries. A distinguishing feature of S. Typhi is that it only infects humans, causing life-threatening systemic infection. This is in sharp contrast to most other
Salmonella enterica serovars such as S. Typhimurium or S. enteritidis, which can infect a variety of hosts and are usually associated with self-limiting gastroenteritis (i. e. “food poisoning”).
The molecular basis for S. Typhi’s unique pathogenic attributes are unknown, although it is believed to be the result of a combination of genome degradation as well as the acquisition of new genetic information presumably resulting in unique interactions with specific human host factors.
One of the few unique virulence factors of this bacterial pathogen is Typhoid toxin, which is encoded by the human-adapted Salmonella enterica serovars Typhi and Paratyphi. A distinguishing feature of this toxin is that it is only produced once S. Typhi reaches an intracellular location, and it is subsequently transported to the extracellular environment by a unique transport mechanism that involves vesicle carrier intermediates. Unique features of the biology of this remarkable toxin and its impact in host specificity will be discussed.