During infections, hosts and parasites undergo complex and dynamic interactions that involve a constant interplay between the host's immune defenses, parasite evasion strategies, and tissue-specific environmental factors including the host's microbiome. Parasite evasion strategies include manipulation of host immune responses through secreted products that may inhibit or mimic host proteins, tissue-specific or intracellular tropism to better evade host defenses, antigenic variation to avoid detection by antibodies, and the secretion of a multitude of proteases and enzymes to cross physical barriers and penetrate target tissues.
At the same time, hosts have developed sophisticated immune responses to detect and eliminate parasites, with both host and parasite undertaking an ongoing evolutionary arms race. Understanding the intricacies of host-parasite interactions is crucial for developing effective interventions to prevent and treat parasitic infections and for unravelling fundamental aspects of immunology and evolutionary biology.
Omics resources such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics offer powerful tools to unravel complex host-parasite interactions at a molecular level. Omics analysis approaches can lead to the discovery of novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, as well as potential therapeutic targets and vaccines against parasite infections. However, with many parasites, host-side omics resources are less available and host responses are understudied, due to a greater overall interest in understanding the parasite's biology and life cycle, and also due to the use of in vitro models to study parasites. Cell lines and laboratory animal models such as inbred mouse strains are often used to model host responses, and while these can provide many valuable and testable insights, they can fail to capture the complexity and diversity of immune responses in humans or natural animal populations. The availability of emerging high-quality parasite omics resources provides a foundation to more effectively leverage new relevant host omics datasets to explore and understand the complexities of host responses to parasite infection at a molecular level.
We propose this research topic as an open forum to present and discuss omics-based strategies to understand host responses to parasite infection.
We will be welcoming original research, review, perspective and opinion submissions oriented towards:
The development or improvement of omics resources for hosts and host models, inclusive of genomics resources to study host-side genetic variations and their consequences on infection, transcriptomic comparisons of infection responses between treatments, species or strains, and proteomic/metabolomic studies to more accurately and quantitatively describe the host environment.
Host-parasite integrative omics analysis, utilizing omics datasets spanning both the host and the parasite to correlate their molecular responses or provide insights into host-parasite interactions.
Emerging omics technology, including single-cell transcriptomics and proteomics, spatial transcriptomics, long-read sequencing, epigenetics, and metagenomics, expands the scope and depth of omics research and offers new opportunities to understand complex host-parasite interactions.
Comparative studies between hosts, including analyzing differences in transcriptional responses to infection, providing insights into the validity of model systems to mimic true host responses, or correlating host genetic diversity with differences in infection responses.
Keywords:
parasites, transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, host-parasite interactions, host models
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.
During infections, hosts and parasites undergo complex and dynamic interactions that involve a constant interplay between the host's immune defenses, parasite evasion strategies, and tissue-specific environmental factors including the host's microbiome. Parasite evasion strategies include manipulation of host immune responses through secreted products that may inhibit or mimic host proteins, tissue-specific or intracellular tropism to better evade host defenses, antigenic variation to avoid detection by antibodies, and the secretion of a multitude of proteases and enzymes to cross physical barriers and penetrate target tissues.
At the same time, hosts have developed sophisticated immune responses to detect and eliminate parasites, with both host and parasite undertaking an ongoing evolutionary arms race. Understanding the intricacies of host-parasite interactions is crucial for developing effective interventions to prevent and treat parasitic infections and for unravelling fundamental aspects of immunology and evolutionary biology.
Omics resources such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics offer powerful tools to unravel complex host-parasite interactions at a molecular level. Omics analysis approaches can lead to the discovery of novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis, as well as potential therapeutic targets and vaccines against parasite infections. However, with many parasites, host-side omics resources are less available and host responses are understudied, due to a greater overall interest in understanding the parasite's biology and life cycle, and also due to the use of in vitro models to study parasites. Cell lines and laboratory animal models such as inbred mouse strains are often used to model host responses, and while these can provide many valuable and testable insights, they can fail to capture the complexity and diversity of immune responses in humans or natural animal populations. The availability of emerging high-quality parasite omics resources provides a foundation to more effectively leverage new relevant host omics datasets to explore and understand the complexities of host responses to parasite infection at a molecular level.
We propose this research topic as an open forum to present and discuss omics-based strategies to understand host responses to parasite infection.
We will be welcoming original research, review, perspective and opinion submissions oriented towards:
The development or improvement of omics resources for hosts and host models, inclusive of genomics resources to study host-side genetic variations and their consequences on infection, transcriptomic comparisons of infection responses between treatments, species or strains, and proteomic/metabolomic studies to more accurately and quantitatively describe the host environment.
Host-parasite integrative omics analysis, utilizing omics datasets spanning both the host and the parasite to correlate their molecular responses or provide insights into host-parasite interactions.
Emerging omics technology, including single-cell transcriptomics and proteomics, spatial transcriptomics, long-read sequencing, epigenetics, and metagenomics, expands the scope and depth of omics research and offers new opportunities to understand complex host-parasite interactions.
Comparative studies between hosts, including analyzing differences in transcriptional responses to infection, providing insights into the validity of model systems to mimic true host responses, or correlating host genetic diversity with differences in infection responses.
Keywords:
parasites, transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, host-parasite interactions, host models
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.