About this Research Topic
Parasites use complex mechanisms, including antigenic variation, to escape host immune responses, which may lead to immune modulation and result in long-term persistent infections. Therefore, the control of parasitic diseases is challenging and usually requires advanced diagnostics and integrated control measures including chemotherapy, vaccines, and management. The advent of technologies that allowed large-scale studies of genes and proteins had a remarkable impact on the screening of new and potential parasitic vaccine candidates. Despite this advancement, it remains difficult to identify conserved proteins and potential peptides among thousands of candidates. In this postgenomic era, the field of bioinformatics, specifically reverse vaccinology, has emerged, hastening the process of identifying potential vaccine candidates through the use of various tools and algorithms. The identification of B-cell and T-cell specific peptides in this manner can significantly reduce the time and cost required for the identification of potential epitopes in the laboratory and play an important role in rational vaccine design.
This Research Topic will also encompass studies underlying immunity to the parasites that cause these diseases. We welcome computational approaches towards Original Research and Review articles on the following, but not exclusive to topics:
• Parasite pangenomics for vaccine development
• Novel adjuvants and linkers for parasite vaccines
• Reverse vaccinology to identify new parasite vaccines
• Development of multi-epitope vaccines for parasite vaccines
• Strategies for vaccine development to be used as an immunoprophylactic and immunotherapeutic agent against parasites
Keywords: Parasites, Protozoa, Helminths, Ectoparasite, Parasitic Infections, Vaccine Targets, Anti-parasite Vaccines, Bioinformatics, Immunoinformatics, Pangenomics, Reverse Vaccinology, Multi Epitope Vaccines, Immunoprophylaxis
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.