Viral and Bacterial Infections Leading to “Non-Infectious” Diseases: Unveiling the Missing Links

Viral and bacterial infections during childhood are largely associated with acute, self-limited manifestations. Long-term consequences are rather uncommon for most infections and are mostly related to direct cellular damage caused by a pathogen and/or an intense inflammatory response generated by the host. Importantly, however, during the past decades, more complex pathogen-host interactions have been identified, associated with diseases traditionally considered “non-infectious”, which may develop weeks to years and even decades after the acute infectious episode. Of particular note in this context is the emerging association between infections and cancer with estimates suggesting that nearly 20% of all cancers may be linked to a previous infection. For pathogens, such as Hepatitis B, Papilloma virus and Helicobacter pylori, the initial infection occurs during childhood, many decades before onset of cancer in selected subgroups of individuals for as yet poorly understood reasons.

Past EBV infection is associated with lymphomas, and may also result in certain allergic and autoimmune diseases. Infections have also been associated with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as Celiac and Crohn's disease, allergic diseases such as Asthma, hematologic and cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and Kawasaki among others. The genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and/or immunomic links between infectious processes and the host, leading to the development/triggering/enhancement of the above mentioned diseases and other apparently “non-infectious” diseases is critical for advancing our understanding of pathogen/host interactions.

This Research Topic is open to original and review articles on studies connecting infectious processes to the development of apparently “non-infectious” acute, sub-acute or chronic diseases, with a particular focus where possible on potentially relevant links to childhood infection.