Pathogen–Host Interaction and Its Associated Molecular Mechanism in HFMD Pathology and Immunology

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is caused by the enterovirus family, which includes EV-A71 and more than 10 other members. The disease involves a complex pathological mechanism that includes intricate and finely-tuned interactions between these pathogens and the host. The research on vaccines that can effectively be used to prevent HFMD caused by major pathogens suggested that the viruses presenting with the same structure but different antigenic traits in response to the immune system interactions enable to interact dynamically to cell surface receptors and to lead to similar pathological outcome through diverse mechanisms. This suggests that further understanding of the whole process of signal stimulation by viral antigen molecules and innate immune receptor molecules could improve our recognition about the events of pathological injury to the body and the characterization of antiviral immune responses with phenotypic differences during the pathogenesis. The accumulated data about process of interaction between virus structure and host in molecular level might provide the theoretical and technical support for next generation of vaccine against HFMD for public health initiatives.