title: Lipid membrane; a novel target for viral and bacterial pathogens.
abstract: Lipid rafts are defined as specialized, dynamic microdomains that can be found in plasma membrane, and they are enriched with cholesterol and sphingolipids. Since lipid rafts' first debut in the mid 1990's, their existence, function and biological relevance have been a subject of intense scrutiny within the scientific community. Throughout this debate, we have learned a great deal regarding how cargos (both pathogens and cellular factors) are transported into and out of the cell through raft-dependent or raft-independent pathways. It is now apparent that a number of toxins, bacterial-, and viral-pathogens are able to exploit cholesterol and/or lipid rafts to gain a foot hold in their target hosts. The objective of this review is to describe our current appreciation on how selected pathogens utilise cholesterol and/or lipid rafts to support their propagation and to speculate on how some of these observations can be explored for the development of novel strategies that target plasma membrane lipids to control the spread of these viral- and bacterial-pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Virology Program, Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, 85 Commercial Roads, Melbourne, 3004 Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hawkes
authors.forename: Johnson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000187:drug effects; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000502:physiology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000187:drug effects; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D002784:Cholesterol