Parasitic infection articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    By harvesting aquatic vegetation that provides habitat for snails that harbour Schistosoma parasites and converting it to compost and animal feed, a trial reduced schistosomiasis prevalence in children while providing wider economic benefits.

    • Jason R. Rohr
    • , Alexandra Sack
    •  & Caitlin Wolfe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A strong association has been found between three regions of the Plasmodium falciparum genome and sickle haemoglobin in children with severe malaria, suggesting parasites have adapted to overcome natural host immunity.

    • Gavin Band
    • , Ellen M. Leffler
    •  & Dominic P. Kwiatkowski

  • Article |

    Enteric glial cells have tissue-wide immunoregulatory roles through the upregulation of IFNγ-dependent genes both at steady state and after parasite infection, promoting immune homeostasis and CXCL10-mediated tissue repair after pathogen-induced intestinal damage in mice.

    • Fränze Progatzky
    • , Michael Shapiro
    •  & Vassilis Pachnis

  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy analysis of the purified Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins (PTEX) reveals two distinct resolved states, suggesting a mechanism by which Plasmodium falciparum exports malarial effector proteins into erythrocytes.

    • Chi-Min Ho
    • , Josh R. Beck
    •  & Z. Hong Zhou

  • Outlook |

    Helminths are worms that can live in the human intestine. Joel Weinstock, a gastroenterologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, studies how they affect inflammation and the body's immune response. He spoke to Nature about how helminths might lead to treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

    • Neil Savage

  • News & Views |

    Drugs used to treat African sleeping sickness are outdated, and how they enter cells and exert biological effects is poorly understood. A genome-wide study using RNA interference provides valuable insight. See Letter p.232

    • Alan H. Fairlamb

  • News & Views |

    The parasitic infection mucocutaneous leishmaniasis can vary in severity. It emerges that the levels of an RNA virus within the parasite affect both the host's immune response and the parasite's persistence.

    • Martin Olivier

  • Feature |

    Chagas disease is a disease of Latin America. In spite of extensive control efforts it is so prevalent that in some areas, such as within the Gran Chaco (see Chagas disease in the Chaco, on page S18), one person in 16 is infected.

  • Feature |

    It is 101 years since Carlos Chagas discovered the parasite responsible for the disease that now bears his name. What progress has been made since this discovery? Here Julie Clayton gives the low-down on Chagas disease.

    • Julie Clayton

  • Feature |

    Anna Petherick investigates the nature of Chagas disease and how its management varies across Latin America.

    • Anna Petherick

  • Feature |

    Energized individuals have worked hard to raise awareness. But politicians have not always listened.

    • Anna Petherick

  • Feature |

    Researching disease transmission in poor, rural settings is part scientific inquiry, part diplomacy.

    • Anna Petherick

  • Opinion |

    Endemic Chagas disease began as a neglected disease of poor, rural and forgotten populations. Its spread from Latin America to non-endemic countries is a new worldwide challenge, say José Rodrigues Coura and Pedro Albajar Viñas.

    • José Rodrigues Coura
    •  & Pedro Albajar Viñas

  • News & Views |

    To combat intestinal worms, mammals rely on adaptive immune responses mediated by T cells. However, it seems that, initially, innate immune cells mimic T-cell activity, while T cells get ready for action.

    • Gérard Eberl

  • Letter |

    Several non-haematopoietic-cell-derived cytokines, including interleukin (IL)25, have been implicated in inducing T helper 2 (TH2) cell-dependent inflammation, but their precise role has been unclear. Here, IL25 is shown to promote the accumulation of multipotent progenitor cells in gut-associated lymphoid tissue. These cells can give rise to macrophage or granulocyte lineages that promote the differentiation of TH2 cells and contribute to protective immunity against helminth infections.

    • Steven A. Saenz
    • , Mark C. Siracusa
    •  & David Artis

  • Letter |

    Here, a new type of innate effector leukocyte cell — the nuocyte — is described and characterized. It is shown that interleukin (IL)25 and IL33 drive the expansion of the nuocyte population, that these cells secrete IL13, and that they are required for protection against helminth infection.

    • Daniel R. Neill
    • , See Heng Wong
    •  & Andrew N. J. McKenzie

  • Article |

    African sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei species, is responsible for some 30,000 human deaths each year. Available treatments are limited by poor efficacy and safety profiles. However, a new molecular target for potential treatments has now been identified. The protein target is T. brucei N-myristoyltransferase. In further experiments, lead compounds have been discovered that inhibit this protein, kill trypanosomes in vitro and in vivo, and can cure trypanosomiasis in mice.

    • Julie A. Frearson
    • , Stephen Brand
    •  & Paul G. Wyatt

  • News & Views |

    The addition of a fatty acid to certain proteins is vital for the survival of protozoa that cause sleeping sickness and of their mammalian hosts. Compounds that target this process in the protozoa are now reported.

    • George A. M. Cross

  • News & Views |

    TH2 growth factors, which are involved in allergy and in defence against parasites, are produced by many different cell types, including a newly identified population found in fat-associated lymph clusters in the abdomen.

    • Warren Strober

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