Bacterial virulence factors: Review

Abstract

Bacterial pathogens have evolved a variety of strategies to live in the tissues of their vertebrate hosts. Despite the fact that some of these strategies are highly sophisticated and unique to a particular disease, others are shared by a number of bacterial species. The traits of microorganisms that confer virulence mainly fall into a few categories, such as the ability to enter a host (penetration), the ability to circumvent host protections (evasion), the ability to flourish in a host environment (capsule), the capacity to hinder host immune reactions, the capacity to consume nutrients and iron from the environment, and the capacity to recognize changes in the surroundings. Without a doubt, the concept of bacterial virulence factors has aided in the identification of important virulence features that have significantly improved our knowledge of microbial pathogenesis. As a result, the pathogenicity mechanisms and virulence factors of bacteria are the main focus of this review.

Keywords: Microbial, environment, virulence factor, bacteria.