Taking the Myc is bad for Theileria.
It is commonly acknowledged that intracellular parasites manipulate the survival pathways of the host cells to their own ends. Theileria are masters of this because they invade bovine leukocytes and immortalize them. Host-cell survival depends on the presence of live parasites, and parasite death results in the leukocyte undergoing programmed cell death. The parasite, therefore, activates several anti-apoptotic pathways in host cells to ensure its own survival. In B cells that are infected by Theileria parva, one of the main mechanisms involves the induction of c-Myc and the subsequent activation of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1. Activation of Myc might occur in other types of leukocyte that are infected by Theileria and in other host cells that are infected with different parasites.
Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire Comparative des Apicomplexes, UMR 8104 CNRS/U567 INSERM, Département Maladies Infectieuses, Hôpital Cochin-Batiment Gustave Roussy, 75014 Paris, France.
Frédéric
F
Dessauge
Regina
R
Lizundia
Martin
M
Baumgartner
Marie
M
Chaussepied
Gordon
G
Langsley
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000469:parasitology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D018448:Models, Immunological; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / Q000502:physiology*; D016797:Theileria parva / Q000502:physiology*; D013801:Theileriasis / Q000469:parasitology*
D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc