Title: Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease | Infection and Immunity
Headings: Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease
Archaea and Their Potential Role in Human Disease
POTENTIAL PATHOGENICITY OF ARCHAEA
POTENTIAL ASSOCIATIONS OF ARCHAEA WITH HUMAN DISEASE
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE STUDIES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
KEYWORDS

Content: In this paper, we discuss human diseases in which archaea may play a role as well as potential virulence characteristics of archaea, possible explanations for the current absence of information about archaea as pathogens, and molecular methods that might be utilized in the search for such pathogens. POTENTIAL PATHOGENICITY OF ARCHAEA
Might archaea be capable of causing disease? Current data suggest that archaea are able to colonize and survive in humans. However, no concerted efforts have been undertaken to implicate archaea in human disease. The full spectrum of outcomes from these archaea-human interactions, whether it includes altered host physiology, tissue damage, or clinical disease, remains a mystery. In general, pathogens are distinguished from commensals by their reliance on a strategy for survival and replication in or transmission from a host that regularly leads to cellular, tissue, or organismal damage. Strategies can vary enormously, but they often define a signature for a family of pathogens. These strategies involve gaining access to the host in sufficient numbers, adhering to and colonizing a niche, evading host defenses, and multiplying in the host ( 50 ). If some archaea behave as pathogens they probably follow this basic scheme, but they may use fundamentally different mechanisms at some or all of these steps. (i) Access and colonization.