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: The detection of anaerobic archaea in the human colonic ( 36 ), vaginal ( 2 ), and oral microbial flora ( 1) demonstrates their ability to colonize the human host. Details regarding their survival in such human niches, including human immune system evasion and competition with normal human flora, however, are largely unavailable. Whether or not members of the Archaea possess virulence factors as commonly defined (i.e., the means for causing disease) is unclear. Of course, generalizations about a group of organisms as diverse as archaea are problematic. With this in mind, one might ask whether there are any fundamental features shared by archaea that should preclude them from acting as pathogens. 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.