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Many of the world's most important pathogens use an arthropod vector to transmit between humans. Such vector-borne pathogens, which include Plasmodium falciparum and dengue virus, cause significant morbidity and mortality in the developing world, and many, such as West Nile virus, have recently emerged in Western countries. Because they have such distinctive lifestyles, studying the pathogens alone is not sufficient to devise treatments and preventative strategies; additional factors, such as the biology of the vector itself and the ways in which it is affected by variables such as geography and climate, must also be considered.
In this article series, Nature Reviews Microbiology highlights the distinct features of a range of vector-borne pathogens and the diseases they cause, as well as how the host responds to these infections.
Borrelia burgdorferi has a complex life cycle with several different hosts, causing Lyme disease when it infects humans. In this Review, Fikrig and colleagues discuss how B. burgdorferi infects and interacts with its tick vector to ensure onward transmission.
Plasmodium falciparum and other malaria parasites have complex life cycles, inhabiting different host cells and tissues during their multistage development. In this Review, Marti and colleagues discuss blood-stage parasite development and the newly discovered reservoir in the haematopoietic niche.
Previously, Zika virus was thought to cause mild infection, and serious complications only recently emerged. Liu, Shi and Qin discuss how the virus has evolved during its recent global spread and consider how these changes might be linked to pathogenesis.
The recent epidemic of Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas has revealed the devastating consequences of ZIKV infection, particularly in pregnant women. In this Progress article, Barouch and colleagues discuss recent preclinical studies and lessons learned from first-in-human clinical trials with ZIKV vaccines.
Flores and O’Neill review novel approaches to control mosquito-transmitted diseases, with a focus on control methods that are based on the release of mosquitoes, including the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, and strategies to genetically modify the vector.
Plasmodium falciparumexports several variant antigens to the surface of erythrocytes. In this Review, Wahlgren, Goel and Akhouri discuss the three best characterized of these protein families, PfEMP1, RIFIN and STEVOR, and highlight their role in the development of severe malaria.
Trypanosomatid parasites can cause life-threatening diseases, such as human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. In this Review, Gilbert and colleagues discuss the drug discovery landscape and describe some of the challenges that are involved in the development of new drugs to treat these diseases.
In this Review, De Nizet al. discuss the contribution of key imaging tools to advances in our understanding of Plasmodiumspp. biology and host–pathogen interactions over the past decade. These advances, pertaining to parasite structure and motility, as well as the liver and blood stages, have led to paradigm shifts in our knowledge of malaria.
Protozoan parasites produce extracellular vesicles to communicate with the host and within the parasite population. In this Progress article, Hajduk and colleagues review the production and effects of extracellular vesicles from parasites, includingPlasmodium spp., Trichomonas vaginalisand kinetoplastids.
The placenta forms the foremost barrier that protects the developing fetus during pregnancy in eutherian organisms. However, diverse pathogens such asToxoplasma gondii, rubella virus and cytomegalovirus can breach this barrier. In this Opinion article, Coyne and Lazear review mechanisms of vertical transmission, with a focus on the current Zika virus epidemic.
Plasmodiumparasites alter the physiology and morphology of erythrocytes by exporting hundreds of proteins into the host cell. In this Review, de Koning-Wardet al. discuss how these parasites use distinct protein trafficking motifs, protease-mediated polypeptide processing, a novel translocon and membranous structures to induce host cell remodelling and promote their own survival.
Although there is currently no licensed vaccine against dengue virus (DENV), the chimeric yellow fever–DENV tetravalent dengue vaccine (CYD-TDV) has shown efficacy against DENV in two recent Phase III clinical trials. In this Opinion article, Guy and Jackson review the efficacy and safety data from these recent trials and discuss how interactions between the virus, pre-existing host immunity and vaccine-induced immune responses explain CYD-TDV-mediated protection.
For transmission from mammalian host to mosquito vector, blood-stage malaria parasites must convert from an asexual form to the sexual gametocyte through a process known as gametocytogenesis. In this Review, Josling and Llinás discuss recent studies that have begun to elucidate the molecular basis of this process, in particular the factors involved in commitment to gametocytogenesis.
Predicting the future global distribution of vector-borne diseases is a complex task that depends on the generation of accurate mathematical models. Here, Messina and colleagues compare and contrast the main approaches that have been used to predict the future distribution of dengue and propose a set of minimum criteria for future projections that, by analogy, are applicable to other vector-borne diseases.
Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite, relies on post-translational modifications of proteins to regulate several fundamental aspects of its life cycle and pathogenesis. Here, Doerig and colleagues focus on the roles of protein phosphorylation, acetylation, methylation and lipidation inP. falciparumbiology, and they discuss how the enzymes that mediate these modifications can be targeted by novel antimalarial drugs.
Recent studies have shown that submicroscopicPlasmodium falciparuminfections are an important, but often undetected, reservoir of malaria and are major contributors to transmission. In this Opinion article, Bousema and colleagues discuss the epidemiology of these infections and the prospects for intervention strategies, and they argue for the wider deployment of molecular diagnostic tools to understand and quantify infection dynamics.
Orthobunyaviruses are transmitted by arthropod vectors and can infect humans, animals and crops. In this Review, Elliott describes recent genetic and structural advances that have revealed important insights into the composition of orthobunyavirus virions, viral transcription and replication, and viral interactions with the host innate immune response.
Humans can resist infection by African trypanosomes, owing to the trypanolytic activity of apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1), which is associated with two serum complexes, trypanosome lytic factor 1 (TLF1) and TFL2.Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense evade this defence mechanism by expressing resistance proteins and in turn, populations in western Africa can restore resistance to T. b. rhodesiense via sequence variation in APOL1. Pays et. al. review this complex relationship and its evolutionary importance.
The protozoan parasiteTrypanosoma bruceihas a single flagellum that is present in all of its different developmental stages. In this Review, Langousis and Hill discuss the structural and functional features of the flagellum and highlight its central role in the virulence and transmission of this important human pathogen.
Current antimalarial therapy heavily relies on artemisinins, a drug class that only targets the blood stages of the parasite and which is increasingly feared to elicit drug resistance. Flannery, Chatterjee and Winzeler discuss the approaches used to develop novel drugs that are active against different life cycle stages with the ultimate aim of eliminating malaria.
Although great progress has been made in the field of dengue research, there are still many unanswered questions concerning the interactions between dengue virus and the human immune system. In this Opinion article, Gubler and colleagues discuss the gaps in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of dengue virus and call for a reassessment of the animal models used in the preclinical stages of dengue research.
In addition to developing vaccines and drugs that target vector-borne diseases, historically the use of insecticides has been the main approach for targeting the vector itself. However, as McGraw and O'Neill describe in this Review, there has been substantial recent progress in developing alternative genetic and biological vector-control strategies.
Here, Suthar, Diamond and Gale review recent insights into West Nile virus pathogenesis and the host immune responses that this virus activates. Given the continuing spread of the virus in the Western hemisphere, a better understanding of these host–virus interactions is crucial and should facilitate the development of effective vaccines and therapeutics.
It has recently emerged that environmental factors such as ambient temperature can strongly influence insect immunity and, thus, shape the outcome of host–parasite interactions. Here, Murdock, Thomas and colleagues argue that, to get more accurate insights into vector resistance, we need to incorporate temperature variation into studies.