Human genetic basis of interindividual variability in the course of infection
Abstract
Pasteur's germ theory of disease initially seemed to have resolved the long-standing antagonism between the proponents of intrinsic and extrinsic disease mechanisms. However, by the turn of the 20th century, it had become clear that each microbe killed only a small minority of infected individuals. Infectious diseases killed half of all children before the age of 15 y, but this enormous burden was caused by the dazzling diversity of pathogens rather than by the potency of individual pathogens. The key problem concerning pediatric infectious diseases thus was identified: their pathogenesis. A human genetic theory of infectious diseases has emerged gradually from clinical and epidemiological studies, building on many elegant studies in plants and animals.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- December 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1521644112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112E7118C