ArticleEvolutionary applications2011
Consequences of immunopathology for pathogen virulence evolution and public health: malaria as a case study.
Article in Evolutionary applications, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- On the diverse and opposing effects of nutrition on pathogen virulence.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Pooled it
- Overview of the host immune response toJournal of parasitic diseases : official organ of the Indian Society for Parasitology · 2025Review
- A high-lipid diet leads to greater pathology and lower tolerance during infection.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Avoiding the tragedies of parasite tolerance in Darwinian beekeeping.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Virulence is associated with daily rhythms in the within-host replication of the malaria parasiteEvolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Balancing sensitivity, risk, and immunopathology in immune regulation.Current opinion in insect science · 2022Review
- Drug Resistance in Filarial Parasites Does Not Affect Mosquito Vectorial Capacity.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Support for the Transmission-Clearance Trade-Off Hypothesis from a Study of Zika Virus Delivered by Mosquito Bite to Mice.Viruses · 2019Article
- Host circadian rhythms are disrupted during malaria infection in parasite genotype-specific manners.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- The Immune and Non-Immune Pathways That Drive Chronic Gastrointestinal Helminth Burdens in the Wild.Frontiers in immunology · 2018Article
- Asiatic acid influences parasitaemia reduction and ameliorates malaria anaemia in P. berghei infected Sprague-Dawley male rats.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2016Article
- The adaptive evolution of virulence: a review of theoretical predictions and empirical tests.Parasitology · 2016Review
- Evolution of hosts paying manifold costs of defence.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2015Article
- Adenosine signaling and the energetic costs of induced immunity.PLoS biology · 2015Article
- Article
- An offer you cannot refuse: down-regulation of immunity in response to a pathogen's retaliation threat.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2013Article
- Revealing mechanisms underlying variation in malaria virulence: effective propagation and host control of uninfected red blood cell supply.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2012Article
- Causes of variation in malaria infection dynamics: insights from theory and data.The American naturalist · 2011Article
- In light of evolution: interdisciplinary challenges in food, health, and the environment.Evolutionary applications · 2011Article
- Evolutionary principles and their practical application.Evolutionary applications · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Evolutionary theories explaining virulence-the fitness damage incurred by infected hosts-often focus on parasite strategies for within-host exploitation. However, much virulence can be caused by the host's own immune response: for example, pro-inflammatory cytokines, although essential for killing malaria parasites, also damage host tissue. Here we argue that immune-mediated virulence, or 'immunopathology,' may affect malaria virulence evolution and should be considered in the design of medical interventions. Our argument is based on the ability of immunopathology to disrupt positive virulence-transmission relationships assumed under the trade-off theory of virulence evolution. During rodent malaria infections, experimental reduction of inflammation using reagents approved for field use decreases virulence but increases parasite transmission potential. Importantly, rodent malaria parasites exhibit genetic diversity in the propensity to induce inflammation and invest in transmission-stage parasites in the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. If immunopathology positively correlates with malaria parasite density, theory suggests it could select for relatively low malaria virulence. Medical interventions which decrease immunopathology may therefore inadvertently select for increased malaria virulence. The fitness consequences to parasites of variations in immunopathology must be better understood in order to predict trajectories of parasite virulence evolution in heterogeneous host populations and in response to medical interventions.
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