Pertussis Pathogenesis—What We Know and What We Don’t Know

Journal of Infectious Diseases April 1, 2014 V.209 N.7 P.982-985

PERSPECTIVE

Erik L. Hewlett1, Drusilla L. Burns2, Peggy A. Cotter3, Eric T. Harvill4, Tod J. Merkel2, Conrad P. Quinn5 and E. Scott Stibitz2

1Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia

2Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, Maryland

3Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

4Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

5National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia

Correspondence: Erik L. Hewlett Box 800419 School of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908 (eh2v@virginia.edu).

Presented at the IDSA Workshop on Pertussis, held 6 March 2013 at the Hyatt Regency, Bethesda, MD.

Abstract

Pertussis is a worldwide public health threat. Bordetella pertussis produces multiple virulence factors that have been studied individually, and many have recently been found to have additional biological activities.

Nevertheless, how they interact to cause the disease pertussis remains unknown. New animal models, particularly the infection of infant baboons with B. pertussis, are enabling longstanding questions about pertussis pathogenesis to be answered and new ones to be asked.

Enhancing our understanding of pathogenesis will enable new approaches to the prevention and control of pertussis.

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