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MONUMENTAL ACCIDENT. "An accidental infection of a mammalian ancestor by a retrovirus was responsible for the evolution of a novel mechanism of reproduction, one that launched the entire lineage of placental mammals no less." https://lnkd.in/e6q2jTP View in LinkedIn

IMMEDIATE HOST DEFENSIVE RESPONSE. "Infection by protozoan parasites is often accompanied by the production and secretion of cytokines and other immune effectors that can induce apoptosis in host cells. This response creates a hostile environment characterized by increased levels of FasL, TNF-α, IFN-γ, various other cytokines which induce apoptosis, and the activities of immune effector cells." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2007.05714.x/full View in LinkedIn

IMMUNOSUPPRESSION. "Due to the presence of their ISD domain, early identification of both Syncytin-1 and-2 suggested that these proteins could be involved in the fetomaternal tolerance state prevailing during pregnancy. It is indeed known that exogenous retroviruses frequently induce severe immunosuppression in both human and animals." https://lnkd.in/eNxap6v View in LinkedIn

"APOPTOSIS, a regulated programmed cell death, is a process whereby cells are culled from healthy tissue. It is important during tissue development, the regulation and termination of an immune response, and the removal of damaged or infected cells. Biochemically, apoptosis is the orderly, immunologically silent dismantling of a cell following the activation of a family of cysteine proteases known as caspases." https://lnkd.in/eg2G-GY View in LinkedIn

REJECTION SUPPRESSION. "As an additional interesting feature of Syncytin proteins, again shared with a certain number of exogenous retroviruses, the presence of an immunosuppressive domain (ISD) has also been demonstrated in these ERV proteins." https://lnkd.in/eNxap6v View in LinkedIn

CELL SUICIDE is called apoptosis. It is normal and widespread. "The cells of a multicellular organism are members of a highly organized community. The number of cells in this community is tightly regulated—not simply by controlling the rate of cell division, but also by controlling the rate of cell death. If cells are no longer needed, they commit suicide by activating an intracellular death program." https://lnkd.in/eaj7Brc View in LinkedIn

NO SUM OF PARTS. "In addition to taking in host nutrients for their own use, bacterial, fungal, and protozoan pathogens also deploy an arsenal of secreted proteins (the 'secretome'), including many factors that interact with host cell components. This openness means that biological systems cannot simply be described as the sum of their parts." https://lnkd.in/eusM5UA View in LinkedIn

OPEN INNOVATION. "Pathogens as biological ‘systems’: open, robust, modular, and stochastic. Intracellular pathogens can be viewed as the ultimate open system: they are constantly interacting with the infected cell and modulating both the host and the pathogen so as to establish a viable physical/temporal niche. These organisms typically exhibit specific auxotrophies, relying on host metabolic processes for essential nucleotides, amino acids, lipids, sugars, vitamins, etc." https://lnkd.in/eusM5UA View in LinkedIn

PRECURSOR SCAVENGING STRATEGY. "Many protozoan parasites live an intracellular auxotrophic lifestyle, actively acquiring metabolites from their nutrient-rich host in order to survive. For instance, blood-stage Plasmodium parasites have lost the ability to biosynthesize purine rings or amino acids, and therefore scavenge host nucleotides to synthesize DNA and catabolize host hemoglobin to generate amino acids." https://lnkd.in/erQdieM View in LinkedIn

HOST LIPID HIJACKING. "While eukaryotic pathogens are often able to synthesize a number of nutrients required for growth de novo, it is often more advantageous to conserve the energy required for biosynthesis and to instead hijack host-derived resources. This is especially true for the acquisition of host lipids, as protozoan parasites must quickly assemble a large amount of new membrane during replication within host cells." https://lnkd.in/erQdieM View in LinkedIn