Virulence is the degree to which a pathogen damages its host, determined by the molecular factors that enable colonization, immune evasion, tissue invasion, and toxin-mediated injury. It is a relative, quantifiable property: strains within a species differ in their capacity to cause disease, and virulence reflects t…
Virulence is the degree to which a pathogen damages its host, determined by the molecular factors that enable colonization, immune evasion, tissue invasion, and toxin-mediated injury. It is a relative, quantifiable property: strains within a species differ in their capacity to cause disease, and virulence reflects the combined action of adhesins, secretion systems, capsules, proteases, and other effectors deployed against host defenses. In molecular and proteomic research, virulence is dissected by cataloguing these determinants and the parasite or microbial proteins expressed during infection. Representative work includes shotgun label-free proteomic analysis of the oyster parasite Perkinsus marinus to characterize its protein repertoire, and the detection of carbapenem-resistance mechanisms in avian pathogenic Escherichia coli, where resistance and pathogenic potential intersect. Further studies generate single-domain antibodies against E. coli implicated in camel-calf mortality and examine fungal infection dynamics, including the surge of Mucorales in post-viral patients. Methodologically, virulence is probed through comparative genomics and proteomics, expression profiling under infection conditions, antimicrobial-susceptibility testing, and host-pathogen interaction models. Understanding virulence factors and their regulation underpins diagnosis, the design of targeted therapeutics and vaccines, and surveillance of emerging resistant and zoonotic pathogens across human, veterinary, and environmental contexts.
10 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 10 articles above have been cited 41 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Virulence, linking to each citing work.