ReviewAnnual review of genomics and human genetics2013
The genetic theory of infectious diseases: a brief history and selected illustrations.
Review in Annual review of genomics and human genetics, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 87 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
87 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis Identifies Multiple Novel Rare Variants to Predict Common Human Infectious Diseases Risk.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Genetic factors affect the susceptibility to bacterial infections in diabetes.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- The role of host genetic factors in respiratory tract infectious diseases: systematic review, meta-analyses and field synopsis.Scientific reports · 2015Pooled it
- Human genetic variants and age are the strongest predictors of humoral immune responses to common pathogens and vaccines.Genome medicine · 2018Trial
- Toward a monogenic architecture of human infections: From 1996 to 2026.Journal of human immunity · 2026Review
- Application of Artificial Intelligence in Inborn Errors of Immunity Identification and Management: Past, Present, and Future-A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- IEIVariantFilter: a bioinformatics tool to speed up genetic diagnosis of inborn errors of immunity patients.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2025Article
- The effects of childhood adversity on twenty-five disease biomarkers and twenty health conditions in adulthood: Differences by sex and stressor type.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Structural and immunological impacts of TOLLIP nsSNPs: A computational biology approach to drug discovery and immune system modulation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Role of the Neanderthal Genome in Genetic Susceptibility to COVID-19: 3p21.31 Locus in the Spotlight.Biochemical genetics · 2024Review
- The Microbe, the Infection Enigma, and the Host.Annual review of microbiology · 2024Review
- Review
- Insights into the genetic theory of infectious diseases.La Tunisie medicale · 2024Review
- Review
- Exploring gastric cancer genetics: A turning point in common variable immunodeficiency.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2024Article
- Nanosilver: An Old Antibacterial Agent with Great Promise in the Fight against Antibiotic Resistance.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- From second thoughts on the germ theory to a full-blown host theory.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- IRF7 and UNC93B1 variants in an infant with recurrent herpes simplex virus infection.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Article
- The Impact of Transmissible Microbes: How the Cystic Fibrosis Community Mobilized Against Cepacia.Perspectives in biology and medicine · 2023Article
- Gene-environment interactions in birth defect etiology: Challenges and opportunities.Current topics in developmental biology · 2023Review
27 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Until the mid-nineteenth century, life expectancy at birth averaged 20 years worldwide, owing mostly to childhood fevers. The germ theory of diseases then gradually overcame the belief that diseases were intrinsic. However, around the turn of the twentieth century, asymptomatic infection was discovered to be much more common than clinical disease. Paradoxically, this observation barely challenged the newly developed notion that infectious diseases were fundamentally extrinsic. Moreover, interindividual variability in the course of infection was typically explained by the emerging immunological (or somatic) theory of infectious diseases, best illustrated by the impact of vaccination. This powerful explanation is, however, best applicable to reactivation and secondary infections, particularly in adults; it can less easily account for interindividual variability in the course of primary infection during childhood. Population and clinical geneticists soon proposed a complementary hypothesis, a germline genetic theory of infectious diseases. Over the past century, this idea has gained some support, particularly among clinicians and geneticists, but has also encountered resistance, particularly among microbiologists and immunologists. We present here the genetic theory of infectious diseases and briefly discuss its history and the challenges encountered during its emergence in the context of the apparently competing but actually complementary microbiological and immunological theories. We also illustrate its recent achievements by highlighting inborn errors of immunity underlying eight life-threatening infectious diseases of children and young adults. Finally, we consider the far-reaching biological and clinical implications of the ongoing human genetic dissection of severe infectious diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.