91¶ÌÊÓƵ

Research Interests

Rickettsia-host interactions; bacterial pathogenesis; immune evasion in Rickettsia; proteolysis in infection; aspartic proteases; retropepsins; virulence factors;

Selected publications:
Matos AL, Curto P, Simões I.** (2022) Moonlighting in Rickettsiales: Expanding virulence landscape. Trop Med Infect Dis. 2022 Feb 19;7(2):32. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7020032.

Curto P, Barro A, Almeida C, Vieira-Pires RS, Simões I.** (2021) The retropepsin-type protease APRc as a novel Ig-binding protein and moonlighting immune evasion factor of Rickettsia. mBio. Dec 21;12(6):e0305921. doi: 10.1128/mBio.03059-21. Epub 2021 Dec 7.

Curto P, Santa C, Cortes L, Manadas B, Simões I**. (2021) Spotted fever group Rickettsia trigger species-specific alterations in macrophage proteome signatures with different impacts in host innate inflammatory responses. Microbiol Spectr. 2021 Dec 22;9(3):e0081421. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.00814-21. Epub 2021 Dec 22.

Curto P., Santa C., Allen P., Manadas B., Simões I.**, Martinez J.J.** (2019) A pathogen and a non-pathogen spotted fever group Rickettsia trigger differential proteome signatures in macrophages. Front Cell Infect Microbiol.9:43. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00043. eCollection 2019.

Curto P., Riley S.P., Simões I.**, Martinez J.J.** (2019) Macrophages infected by a pathogen and a non-pathogen spotted fever group Rickettsia reveal differential reprogramming signatures early in infection. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 9:97. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00097. eCollection 2019.