Book Description

At the present rate of progress in the immunological and parasitological sciences, it has become necessary to bring together these two branches of biological knowledge in order to get a bigger picture of the changes that occurred during the ancient battle between hosts and parasites, changes that are still happening today and will continue as long as evolution exists. To understand how immune responses are shaped by parasite molecules, developmental stages of a parasite s biology, the pathway and chronicity of infections, etc., we require the interaction of researchers with experience in several fields such as, immunology and parasitology, molecular biology and biochemistry. This book has been planned to incorporate new discoveries and concepts in immunoparasitology as well as the ever-growing areas of host-parasite relationships and cross-regulated responses among parasite development, the immune system and other host systems, such as the metabolism. It is remarkable that parasitic diseases still represent a tremendous worldwide health problem; in fact more than half of the human population is, in the course of their life, infected with some kind of parasite. Effective vaccines must offer long-term cost-effective solutions but, despite intense efforts, sufficiently efficacious and safe vaccines are as yet unavailable for many major parasites. These challenges demand a greater effort from investigators to perform more specifically delineated basic biomedical research to better understand the different pathways that parasites exploit in their hosts for survival and reproduction. Examples of areas where an impressive amount of new knowledge has been incorporated are the areas of genomics and proteomics of parasites such as Leishmania, Trypanosoma, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma and Entamoeba, among protozoan parasitic diseases. Likewise, some advances in similar topics are being developed regarding some helminthes such as Taenia and Brugia. With respect to immunity, the importance of early and differential recognition of parasites by the immune system (Innate Immunity) in order to mount the right and effective immune response as fast as possible to eliminate the invading parasite is now known. Thus, increasing highlights have been reported on pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs) on immune cells and Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs) on parasites. This book includes current knowledge on the role of innate immunity, toll-like receptors, cytokines and chemokines and their respective receptors in maintaining the functional ability of the immune system to keep parasites restricted and maintain a healthy host as long as possible. Interestingly, the immune response is often not working alone when dealing with parasitic infections. In recent years, some research has focused on the interconnections of the immune system with other systems such as the neuro-endocrine, reproductive, and metabolic systems. There are several examples (such as some presented in this book), where the more integrative study of an infection, including not only the immune system but also the neuro-endocrine and metabolic systems, is necessary to fully understand resistance or susceptibility to pathogens. All the authors in this book have made invaluable contributions to the knowledge of the interaction between parasites and the immune response with great expertise, so that each chapter is an actualized and current review of a topic in which authors are leaders in the field and, of course, are directly involved in laboratory and field experimentation. Notwithstanding, I am sure there will be disagreement with other top researchers on certain issues, of course we do not expect a general agreement which rarely exists in the biological sciences, but I hope that such controversial areas will generate more intense and deep research. We all hope that this increasing interest in the multidisciplinary study of the interactions among parasites, immune responses, metabolism, molecular biology, genetics and other physiological systems in the host can produce an expanding universe of knowledge that could be translated, in few years, into benefits to humanity, especially to those individuals who are now suffering from some of these parasitic diseases. We hope that this knowledge could, in time, be used to design better and more effective vaccines, new methods of early diagnosis, better preventive measures, new rationales for drug development to fight parasitic diseases, and new individual susceptibility markers, as well as identify where immune mechanisms contribute to parasite restriction or facilitate host colonization. Finally, all we expect that new generations of young researchers get interested in these areas of knowledge, in order to contribute to fight then emerging infectious diseases which are another sign of the impact of warming climate.