Inflammatory and Inflammatory-Like Responses in Insects

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Background

Inflammation is a protective reaction of the host in response to various extrinsic and intrinsic harmful stimuli. Pathogen infection, injury and even psychological stress are known to induce inflammation. Chronic inflammation may lead to tissue and DNA damages and is also involved in the development of cancers. Several sensors such as TLRs (Toll-like receptors) and NODs (NOD-like receptors) are responsible for recognizing their ligands from these stressors namely PAMPs (pathogen-associated molecular pattern) and DAMPs (danger-associated molecular pattern). The engagement of these sensors leads to the activation of signaling pathways and mediators, for instance NF-κB, cGAS-STING, JAK-STAT and MAPK, which in turn, induce hundreds of various effectors. Previous studies using mammals have elegantly discovered some of the underlying molecular mechanisms. However, some results are still difficult to interpret due to sophisticated but complicated cross-talks of different signaling pathways and gene redundancy. Studies of using invertebrates have a strong potential to discover new mechanisms and resources not only at cellular level but also organoid and organism levels, which are generally difficult to achieve in mammals. Nonetheless, the field of insect inflammation has not yet well-recognized today.

Many aspects of the inflammatory reaction are conserved between invertebrate and vertebrate, however, there are also relevant differences. Invertebrates lack antibody-based adaptive immunity but can eliminate pathogens efficiently by their innate immune system. The intracellular signaling from the receptors to transcription factors is highly conserved, but their target effector genes have little sequence homology (there is no clear one-to-one effector homolog between invertebrates and vertebrates). Most of invertebrates are poikilotherms, having approximately 10-times lower maximum metabolic rates as compared to homothermic vertebrates. Invertebrates deal with various threats relying on their powerful inflammatory reactions whose mechanisms unfortunately have not fully described yet.

The aim of this Research Topic is to shed light on inflammatory-like reactions in invertebrates (e.g. cancers, neurodegeneration, chronic inflammation) and to gather comparative overview of inflammatory-like reactions in different insect species, with the ultimate goal to raise recognition towards the field of insect immunology and to provide useful information to the scientific community. We welcome studies using Drosophila melanogaster and other insect species as model organisms and we encourage the submission of Original Research, Review, Mini-Review, Perspective, Hypothesis and Theory articles focusing on the following subtopics:

• Studies on various cellular and humoral inflammatory-like response in invertebrates such as wound healing, chemotaxis, phagocytosis, hemocyte aggregation, coagulation, melanization, neurodegeneration, aging and cancers

• Uncontrolled activation of stress and innate immune signaling pathways in the context of non-infectious conditions

• OMICS (transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic) studies on insect inflammatory-like reactions

• Inflammatory-like gene identification, characterization, function and regulation (including negative regulation and epigenetic regulation)

• Comparative analyses of inflammatory-like gene and function

• Identification and characterization of pro- and anti-inflammatory factors and/or chemicals from invertebrates

Keywords: Invertebrates; Insects; inflammation; Drosophila melanogaster; Innate Immune Response; Pathogens; Cancer; Neurodegeneration

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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