We therefore undertook a series of experiments in which we explored whether immune factors central to the protection-pathology balancing act help to determine the virulence induced during infection with genetically distinct malaria parasites, and if so, what effect this may have on parasite fitness.
Knowledge of the factors influencing the balance between protection and pathology can assist in the design of therapeutics aimed at modulating monocyte and macrophage functions to improve outcomes.
In this review we discuss recent discoveries on how distinct molecular interactions between monocytes, macrophages, and malaria parasites may alter the balance between protection and pathology in malaria-infected individuals.
Investigation of genes underlying complex traits such as resistance or response to viral pathogens requires several genetic approaches including candidate genes deduced from knowledge about the cellular pathways leading to protection or pathology, or unbiased whole genome scans using markers spread across the genome.
There is continual debate about the relative contribution of T cells to protection and pathology in influenza virus infection.
Thus, manipulating the IFN-γ production by antigen-specific CD4+ T cells may achieve a proper balance between protection and pathology and have vaccine-relevant implication.
Repeated blood stage infections induce antibodies considered to be the main arbiters of protection from pathology, but their essential functions have remained speculative.
This approach allowed us to use a "natural" genetically unmodified population, and to directly associate the inter-strain differences identified in I/St and A/Sn mice with TB protection or pathology.
In most cases, however, it is difficult to judge whether the identified inter-strain differences contribute to protection or pathology, as most mouse strains carry combinations of resistance and susceptibility genes and their phenotypes may represent a mixture of both protective and pathological responses.
CREB activation regulates several proteins involved in protection against pathology.
We thus identify novel determinants of protection versus pathology in influenza– Streptococcus pneumoniae coinfection.
