Pathogen Replication, Host Inflammation, and Disease in the Upper Respiratory Tract

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Michael J. Mina, Emory University; Keith P Klugman, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2013-03
• Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2013, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://iai.asm.org/content/81/3/625
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Infection and Immunity
• ISSN: 0019-9567
• Volume: 81
• Issue: 3
• Start Page: 625
• End Page: 628
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, Immunology

Abstract

Influenza virus and respiratory bacterial synergy, a term often used when describing the relationship between these two highly divergent phyla of respiratory tract pathogens, has been known and documented for nearly a century. The first conclusive reports date back to 1931, when a young scientist, Richard Shope, and his mentor, Paul Lewis, demonstrated that, by infecting pigs initially with an influenza virus and then with Haemophilus influenzae, they could induce disease more severe than that seen with either of the two pathogens in isolation. These experiments clarified at least in part the seemingly contradictory findings of Richard Pfeiffer with his discovery in 1892 of H. influenzae, which he believed was the causative agent of influenza, and of Olitsky and Gates, who postulated in 1921 that the causative agent of influenza was indeed a virus. In hindsight, Pfeiffer was probably more correct than he was given credit for, with his finding that a bacterial pathogen was associated with the severe disease often seen in influenza virus infections.