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Journal of Infectious Diseases and Therapy ISSN: 2332-0877 | Volume: 6
Infectious Diseases
4
th
Annual Congress on
Neglected Tropical & Infectious Diseases
5
th
International Conference on
August 29-30, 2018 | Boston, USA
&
Notes:
Innovative path to tackle neglected diseases : Restoring functionality of host immune system
D
iseases neglected or omitted and neglected worth growing attention and new innovative immune/metabolic paths show
real potential and overlapping approach to be undertaken. The fight against the Neglected Tropical Diseases receiving
increased worldwide attention after the recent attribution of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to William
Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their development of a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites.
Recently, WHO’s efforts to address growing global AMR (27
th
Feb 2017) and it highlighted, in particular, the threat of gram-
negative bacteria but initially “neglected” growing world urgency of tuberculosis – XDR/MDR and latent in particular. Based
on recent works natural defenses to infection are mediated by intrinsic/innate and adaptive immune responses. While our
understanding is considerable it is incomplete and emerging areas of research such as those related to the immune-metabolic
axis are started to be appreciated. Macrophages play a frontline role in this process connecting immunity, infection and lipid
biology, and collaterally are a central target for infection by a wide range of pathogens including viruses and bacteria, especially
intracellular bacteria such as mycobacteria. Clinical manifestations of disease severity in the infected host are likely to pay tribute
to perturbations of the metabolic-immune phenomena found in lymphocytes and myeloid cells. Historically and consistent
with this notion, vitamin D based oxysterols have had a long association with promoting clinical improvements to patients
infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. M. tuberculosis has invested considerable genomic real estate to encode enzymes
capable of exploiting and catabolizing these host-derived immune metabolites (1) Similarly, it appears that L (Leishmania )
parasites by decreasing membrane cholesterol during their intracellular life cycle may have altered the conformation of MHC-
II molecules with direct bearing on the compromised agonist affinity leading to faster dissociation of cognate peptide from the
peptide-MHC-II complex which could be corrected by liposomal cholesterol delivery. Several new paths to understanding host
immune system interactions during L infection are looked at. Phagocytosis, a process known to be subverted by parasites like
Leishmania (L). Indeed, the intracellular development of L amastigote relies on the biogenesis and dynamic remodeling of a
phagolysosome, termed the parasitophorous vacuole. (2) It appears that L parasites by decreasing membrane cholesterol during
their intracellular life cycle may have altered the conformation of MHC-II molecules with direct bearing on the compromised
agonist affinity leading to faster dissociation of cognate peptide from the peptide-MHC-II complex which could be corrected
by liposomal cholesterol delivery(4) Additionally or consequently CD8 T cells are driven to energy/exhaustion in human VL,
Ivana Haluskova Balter
French society of Immunology, France
Ivana Haluskova Balter, J Infect Dis Ther 2018, Volume 6
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C3-043