Why a Therapy Leads to Greater Strep. Infection (2 of 2) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Why a Therapy Leads to Greater Strep. Infection (2 of 2)

Caption

The pro-inflammatory protein IL-1β may have multiple activation sites, like those pictured above, whereby pathogen proteases, such as SpeB from Group A Streptococcus, cleaves IL-1β, which subsequently activates and suppresses Strep. invasion. When IL-1β is repressed for autoimmune therapy, its intervention in bacterial infection is blocked, and Strep. is free to infect the host. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Aug. 19, issue of Science Immunology, published by AAAS. The paper, by C. LaRock at UC San Diego in La Jolla, CA, and colleagues was titled, 'IL-1β is an innate immune sensor of microbial proteolysis.'

Credit

Chris Bickel / Science Immunology

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