A deadly dance: the choreography of host–pathogen interactions, as revealed by single-cell technologies

Abstract

Pathogens have numerous mechanisms by which they replicate within a host, who in turn responds by developing innate and adaptive immune countermeasures to limit disease. The advent of high-content single-cell technologies has facilitated a greater understanding of the properties of host cells harboring infection, the host’s pathogen-specific immune responses, and the mechanisms pathogens have evolved to escape host control. Here we review these advances and argue for greater inclusion of higher resolution single-cell technologies into approaches for defining immune evasion mechanisms by pathogens.