The Immune Response to Apicomplexan Parasite Infections During Pregnancy: Pathogenesis, Drug Treatments, and Immunotherapies

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Background

Pregnancy is the most important process associated with the conservation of eutherian species, and is characterized by a delicate modulation of maternal and developing foetus immune systems. The placenta, generally viewed as an immunological barrier, is a key organ, essential for the regulation of metabolic exchanges. It also provides oxygen and nutrients to the foetus, and produces several specific factors determinant to a successful pregnancy. Furthermore, during the gestational period, modulation of the maternal immune response occurs also at the level of maternal-foetal interface, which is crucial for foetus development and protection. This complex interaction explains the differential immune response to almost any pathogen during pregnancy in contrast to non-pregnancy, which is generally referred to as increased susceptibility of a pregnant mother to infection.

Among several pathogens causing serious infections during pregnancy, some obligate intracellular parasites from the Apicomplexa phylum pose major risks to pregnancy in humans and/or livestock, leading even to foetal losses, abortions and stillbirths. In this regard, Plasmodium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are the causative agents of the life-threatening placental malaria (humans) and congenital toxoplasmosis (humans and livestock) respectively. Moreover, Neosporosis, an infection caused by Neospora caninum is considered the major cause of abortions and reproductive failures in cattle, leading to important economic losses.

Despite the differences between these parasites, it has been suggested that an appropriate immune response against any of them mainly relies on the cellular immunity mediated by CD4+ and CD8+T cells, and the further secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IFN-γ and TNF-α, which in turn can adversely affect the placental function and foetal growth, leading to foetal death and abortion.
Parasites have an outstanding capacity to evade the host's immune system, and the current knowledge about the cellular and molecular processes that regulate their life cycles in various hosts is limited. Taken together, these issues represent a huge challenge to the development of prophylaxes and treatments for apicomplexan infections during pregnancy.

This Research Topic will include contributions that highlight advances and challenges regarding the most important apicomplexan parasites affecting pregnancy: Plasmodium spp., T. gondii and N. caninum.

The specific areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
• mechanisms related to pathogenesis during the gestational period;
• polyomics (genomic, proteomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic);
• integrative approaches to host-parasite interactions;
• applied parasitology;
• discovery and development of drug treatments and immunotherapies.

Also, key challenges in new therapeutic targets and combination approaches, as well as ongoing clinical trials, are of interest.

The following article types are welcome: Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Perspective, General Commentary, and Opinion.

Keywords: Apicomplexan parasites, Pregnancy loss, Immunopathology, Drug Discovery, Immunotherapies

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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