Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Sep 20:9:2128.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02128. eCollection 2018.

Host-Parasite Interactions Promote Disease Tolerance to Intestinal Helminth Infection

Irah L King  1   2 , Yue Li  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Host-Parasite Interactions Promote Disease Tolerance to Intestinal Helminth Infection

Irah L King et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Parasitic helminths are among the most pervasive pathogens of the animal kingdom. To complete their life cycle, these intestinal worms migrate through host tissues causing significant damage in their wake. As a result, infection can lead to malnutrition, anemia and increased susceptibility to co-infection. Despite repeated deworming treatment, individuals living in endemic regions remain highly susceptible to re-infection by helminths, but rarely succumb to excessive tissue damage. The chronicity of infection and inability to resist numerous species of parasitic helminths that have co-evolved with their hosts over millenia suggests that mammals have developed mechanisms to tolerate this infectious disease. Distinct from resistance where the goal is to destroy and eliminate the pathogen, disease tolerance is an active process whereby immune and structural cells restrict tissue damage to maintain host fitness without directly affecting pathogen burden. Although disease tolerance is evolutionary conserved and has been well-described in plant systems, only recently has this mode of host defense, in its strictest sense, begun to be explored in mammals. In this review, we will examine the inter- and intracellular networks that support disease tolerance during enteric stages of parasitic helminth infection and why this alternative host defense strategy may have evolved to endure the presence of non-replicating pathogens and maintain the essential functions of the intestine.

Keywords: disease tolerance; helminth; immunity; infection; intestine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distinguishing disease tolerance from general vigor during helminth infection. (A) Graphical representation of a reaction norm (slope of the curve) where, despite similar starting points (P1), Host B has a greater loss in fitness (i.e., increased morbidity) with increasing parasite load than Host A. Thus, Host A displays greater disease tolerance to infection than Host B. (B) Despite differences in host fitness across various parasite loads, the reaction norm between Hosts A and B remains the same. Thus, there is no differences in disease tolerance between A and B, only a difference in general vigor.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A multitude of host and parasite-derived characteristics impact disease tolerance during the intestinal stages of helminth infection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hotez PJ, Fenwick A, Ray SE, Hay SI, Molyneux DH. “Rapid impact” 10 years after: the first “decade” (2006-2016) of integrated neglected tropical disease control. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. (2018) 12:e0006137. 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006137 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hotez PJ, Brindley PJ, Bethony JM, King CH, Pearce EJ, Jacobson J. Helminth infections: the great neglected tropical diseases. J Clin Invest. (2008) 118:1311–21. 10.1172/JCI34261 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lustigman S, Prichard RK, Gazzinelli A, Grant WN, Boatin BA, McCarthy JS, et al. . A research agenda for helminth diseases of humans: the problem of helminthiases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. (2012) 6:e1582. 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001582 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Medzhitov R, Schneider DS, Soares MP. Disease tolerance as a defense strategy. Science (2012) 335:936–41. 10.1126/science.1214935 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Soares MP, Teixeira L, Moita LF. Disease tolerance and immunity in host protection against infection. Nat Rev Immunol. (2017) 17:83–96. 10.1038/nri.2016.136 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Supplementary concepts

Grants and funding