"Weapons of a pathogen: Proteases and their role in virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa"

TLDR: The opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has an arsenal of impressively efficient proteases that helps establishing and maintaining an infection and thereby controlling and modifying the environment according to the needs of the bacterium within the host tissue.

Abstract: Pathogenic bacteria need to interact with their host to establish an infection and to maintain it successfully afterwards. This requires to “understand” signals of the immune-system and to “respond” appropriately when the host tries to defend himself. Part of the response of successful pathogens is secretion of so called virulence factors which manipulate or even destroy defense lines of the host. An important part of the arsenal of bacterial virulence factors are proteases. Proteases are enzymes that hydrolyze peptide bonds and can therefore degrade proteins and peptides. As proteins are one of the basic building blocks in nature, proteases can influence a broad range of biological functions including the infection process which is not just a simple and rapid multiplication of bacterial cells in the human body. The opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has an arsenal of impressively efficient proteases that helps establishing and maintaining an infection and thereby controlling and modifying the environment according to the needs of the bacterium within the host tissue.