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DefinitionThis section has been translated automatically.
In microbiology, "attenuated" means that a pathogen has been weakened so that it largely loses its disease-causing potential but retains its ability to trigger an immune response.
In concrete terms this means:
- The microorganism is alive but no longer fully virulent.
- It can often continue to multiply for a limited time, but does not cause any (or only very mild) disease.
- Attenuation is often used in live vaccines (e.g. measles, mumps, rubella vaccine).
General informationThis section has been translated automatically.
Typical methods used to attenuate a microorganism are:
- Long-term cultivation under unfamiliar conditions
- Passage through other hosts
- Targeted genetic modifications that reduce virulence. In bacteria, attenuation is characterized by the termination of transcription. This is an efficient RNA-based regulatory strategy that frequently occurs in bacteria.
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By definition, an attenuated pathogen is not completely inactive (inactivated), but merely attenuated.
LiteratureThis section has been translated automatically.
- Goławski M et al. (2022) The Reassessed Potential of SARS-CoV-2 Attenuation for COVID-19 Vaccine Development-A Systematic Review. Viruses 14:991.
- Paff ML et al. (2018) Combinatorial Approaches to Viral Attenuation. mSystems 31:e00046-18.
