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Previous Volume 354:1418-1420 March 30, 2006 Number 13 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Bacteria of the genus rickettsia cause life-threatening rickettsioses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, typhus fever, Mediterranean spotted fever, and murine typhus. The clinical manifestations of these types of rickettsioses (for example, hypovolemia and edema of the skin, lungs, and brain) result from increased vascular permeability; the key event causing the microvascular leakage is widespread endothelial infection. The rickettsiae enter cells by binding to the membrane, inducing phagocytosis, and escaping from the phagosome into the cytosol. Martinez et al. recently identified a critical component of the first step: the protein on the host cell to which the rickettsia binds.¹

Using . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

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