Yersinia pestis and pneumonic plague: Insight into how a lethal pathogen interfaces with innate immune populations in the lung to cause severe disease

• Published in: Cellular immunology 2024-09, Vol.403-404, p.104856, Article 104856
• Main Authors: Venugopal, Gopinath, Pechous, Roger D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Bacterial pathogens; Host-Pathogen Interactions - immunology; Humans; Immunity, Innate - immunology; Lung - immunology; Lung - microbiology; Plague; Plague - immunology; Plague - microbiology; Pneumonic plague; Pulmonary infection; Virulence - immunology; Yersinia; Yersinia pestis - immunology; Yersinia pestis - pathogenicity
• ISSN: 0008-8749; 1090-2163; 1090-2163
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2024.104856

•Pulmonary infection with the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis causes fatal necrotic pneumonia called pneumonic plague and is responsible for person-to-person spread of plague.•Progression of pneumonic plague is biphasic, with an early pre-inflammatory phase followed by a lethal pro-inflammatory phase.•Y. pestis inactivates alveolar macrophages and neutrophils early in the lung to establish infection.•The rapid onset of a pulmonary hyperinflammatory response during the later stages of infection is unable to control bacterial growth and is lethal to the mammalian host. Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. The historical importance and potential of plague to re-emerge as a threat worldwide are indisputable. The most severe manifestion of plague is pneumonic plague, which results in disease that is 100% lethal without treatment. Y. pestis suppresses host immune responses early in the lung to establish infection. The later stages of infection see the rapid onset of hyperinflammatory responses that prove lethal. The study of Y. pestis host/pathogen interactions have largely been investigated during bubonic plague and with attenuated strains in cell culture models. There remains a somewhat limited understanding of the interactions between virulent Y. pestis and immune populations in the lung that drive severe disease. In this review we give a broad overview of the progression of pneumonic plague and highlighting how Y. pestis interfaces with host innate immune populations in the lung to cause lethal disease.