About this Research Topic
At the interphase between blood and tissue, endothelial cells are in a unique position to respond to and interact with microbial pathogens during local and systemic infection. From this strategic position, endothelial cells have a dual role as sentinels that direct inflammatory and immune cell recruitment, but also as regulators of inflammation that limit immunopathology. Many infections involve dysregulation of endothelial functions, ranging from the acute hyperpermeability and loss of vascular tone that characterise bacterial and viral sepsis, to endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular disease associated with unresolved low-grade inflammation in chronic infections. Accordingly, microbial-endothelial interactions are central to infectious disease pathogenesis.
A better understanding of tissue-specific interactions between pathogens and vascular endothelial cells, particularly in organs such as the brain and lungs where infection can lead to serious, even fatal consequences, would be highly beneficial. Not only could this knowledge promote the development of new strategies to target vascular dysfunction in acute and chronic infections, but it may also underpin the use of existing strategies aimed to stabilise vascular function by widely available and affordable therapeutic agents.
For this Research Topic, we aim to facilitate a compendium of exciting novel ideas on short- and long-term vascular responses to a variety of microbial pathogens. We invite primary research and review articles covering all aspects of interactions between microbial pathogens and endothelial cells during infection. Examples of relevant sub-topics include:
• mechanisms that dysregulate endothelial function in microbial infection, including endothelial damage and endoteliitis, microbial proteins that target the endothelial barrier, responses to soluble mediators in acute and chronic inflammation, and modulation of the endothelial glycocalyx
• endothelial factors and profiles that influence the outcome of microbial infection, including intrinsic antiviral factors, sentinel functions and leukocyte recruitment, immunomodulatory effects, and tolerance induction, and high-resolution profiling of vascular transcriptional responses to infection
• therapeutic targeting of endothelial cells in microbial infections, including pleimorphic therapies that stabilise vascular function
• vascular endothelial cell tropism in microbial infection and the factors directing it.
Keywords: Endothelium, Infection, Human diseases, Microbes, Vascular remodeling, Coagulation, Vascular permeability, Inflammation
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.