AIM:
Leishmania first came to the full attention of the immunological community following the discovery that different inbred strains of mice made either protective Th1 responses or non-protective Th2 responses following infection. Thus, Leishmania represents and excellent example of how an immunological concept, initially developed in-vitro, eventually played out in an infectious system. Leishmania has since become a common experimental system in which to study virtually every aspect of immunology. This has benefited both the immunological community, by providing a ‘real-world’ infection system to test concepts developed in more reductionist systems, and the Leishmania community, by providing novel insights into the host-pathogen relationship, including mechanisms of disease, and host resistance/susceptibility. This Research Topic of Frontiers in Immunology aims to review, strengthen, and facilitate the continuation of this mutually beneficial relationship with the hope that it will ultimately lead to new treatments for this important neglected tropical disease.
SCOPE:
Infection of mammalian hosts with eukaryotic pathogens presents some of the most elegant examples of parasitism in nature. In the case of Leishmania, the transmission of the parasite by an insect vector adds an added level of complexity to the host response. This Research Topics issue will cover the multi-step interaction between the mammalian host and the Leishmania parasite, starting with the initial response to tissue damage resulting from the bite of the insect vector, to long-term chronicity in the face of adaptive immunity. The collected papers will place special emphasis on the ways in which Leishmania parasitizes the mammalian host to both evade and subvert the immune response.
AIM:
Leishmania first came to the full attention of the immunological community following the discovery that different inbred strains of mice made either protective Th1 responses or non-protective Th2 responses following infection. Thus, Leishmania represents and excellent example of how an immunological concept, initially developed in-vitro, eventually played out in an infectious system. Leishmania has since become a common experimental system in which to study virtually every aspect of immunology. This has benefited both the immunological community, by providing a ‘real-world’ infection system to test concepts developed in more reductionist systems, and the Leishmania community, by providing novel insights into the host-pathogen relationship, including mechanisms of disease, and host resistance/susceptibility. This Research Topic of Frontiers in Immunology aims to review, strengthen, and facilitate the continuation of this mutually beneficial relationship with the hope that it will ultimately lead to new treatments for this important neglected tropical disease.
SCOPE:
Infection of mammalian hosts with eukaryotic pathogens presents some of the most elegant examples of parasitism in nature. In the case of Leishmania, the transmission of the parasite by an insect vector adds an added level of complexity to the host response. This Research Topics issue will cover the multi-step interaction between the mammalian host and the Leishmania parasite, starting with the initial response to tissue damage resulting from the bite of the insect vector, to long-term chronicity in the face of adaptive immunity. The collected papers will place special emphasis on the ways in which Leishmania parasitizes the mammalian host to both evade and subvert the immune response.