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Parasites, bacteria, and viruses pose serious threats to public health. Many parasite infections, including infections of protozoa and helminths, can inhibit inflammatory responses and impact disease outcomes caused by viral, bacterial, or other parasitic infections. Type I interferon (IFN-I) has been recognized as an essential immune effector in the host defense against various pathogens. In addition, IFN-I responses induced by co-infections with different pathogens may vary according to the host genetic background, immune status, and pathogen burden. However, there is only limited information on the roles of IFN-I in co-infections with parasites and viruses, bacteria, or other parasites. This review summarizes some recent findings on the roles of IFN-I in co-infections with parasites, including Leishmania spp., Plasmodium spp., Eimeria maxima, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, Brugia malayi , or Schistosoma mansoni , and viruses or bacteria and co-infections with different parasites (such as co-infection with Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii , and co-infection with Plasmodium spp. and H. polygyrus ). The potential mechanisms of host responses associated with co-infections, which may provide targets for immune intervention and therapies of the co-infections, are also discussed., (Copyright © 2020 Ma, Su and Lu.)

The mammalian immune system has evolved the capacity to detect and destroy tumor cells. Tumors utilize multiple strategies to evade host immune surveillance, including the induction of the checkpoint molecules cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) to suppress antitumor immunity. Pharmacologic blockade of these molecules with checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) restores T cell function and prolongs survival in patients with various malignancies. Emerging evidence suggests that the same checkpoint pathways may play a crucial role during infections. Indeed, CPIs appear promising as immunotherapeutic agents in infectious diseases, although their efficacy varies depending on pathogen-, cell-, and organ-specific factors. More research will be necessary to clarify the effects and safety of CPIs on clinically relevant outcomes of human infection., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses photosensitizers (non-toxic dyes) that are activated by absorption of visible light to form reactive oxygen species (including singlet oxygen) that can oxidize biomolecules and destroy cells. Antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation (aPDI) can treat localized infections. aPDI neither causes any resistance to develop in microbes, nor is affected by existing drug resistance status. We discuss some recent developments in aPDI. New photosensitizers including polycationic conjugates, stable synthetic bacteriochlorins and functionalized fullerenes are described. The microbial killing by aPDI can be synergistically potentiated (several logs) by harmless inorganic salts via photochemistry. Genetically engineered bioluminescent microbial cells allow PDT to treat infections in animal models. Photoantimicrobials have a promising future in the face of the unrelenting increase in antibiotic resistance., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Most imported diseases can be well treated-provided the diagnosis is made in due time. For example, only the rapid and correctly performed treatment of falciparum malaria can impede severe complications and save the patient's life. Effective treatments for amebiasis, giardiasis, leishmaniasis and worm diseases are available. However, it has to be mentioned that evidence from clinical trials is often insufficient. Accordingly only few international guidelines for imported diseases exist.

In the poorest regions of the United States, especially along the Gulf Coast and in South Texas, are a group of endemic parasitic and related infections known as the neglected infections of poverty. Such infections are characterized by their chronicity, disabling features, and disproportionate impact on the estimated 46 million people who live below the U.S. poverty line. Today more Americans live in poverty than ever before in the half-century that the Census Bureau has been recording poverty rates. In association with that poverty, a group of major neglected infections of poverty have emerged in the United States. Here we describe the major neglected infections of poverty in the United States, with a brief overview of their significant epidemiological features, their links with poverty, and our approaches to their diagnosis, management, and treatment.

This article focuses on clinical and diagnostic aspects relevant to severe acute infectious gastroenteritis in children and will update treatment strategies focused on, although not limited to, anti-infective therapy. For the purposes of this article we will consider severe acute infectious gastroenteritis as follows: watery diarrhea accompanied by, or at high risk for, moderate to severe dehydration due to abrupt onset of vomiting that reduces oral intake, and/or frequent emission of liquid stools, or moderate to severe dysenteric/bloody diarrhea with moderate to high-grade fever. The article will not include food poisoning associated with bacterial toxins and will only briefly discuss oral rehydration strategies and intravenous solutions. The article will also briefly discuss current preventive measures against rotavirus gastroenteritis through vaccination, a topic that has been extensively discussed elsewhere.

Autophagy is emerging as a central component of antimicrobial host defense against diverse viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections. In addition to pathogen degradation, autophagy has other functions during infection such as innate and adaptive immune activation. As an important host defense pathway, microbes have also evolved mechanisms to evade, subvert, or exploit autophagy. Additionally, some fungal pathogens harness autophagy within their own cells to promote pathogenesis. This review will highlight our current understanding of autophagy in infection, focusing on the most recent advances in the field, and will discuss the potential implications of these studies in the design of anti-infective therapeutics.

Management of gastrointestinal infections according to usually mild, self-confining character is commonly based on symptoms. Specific therapy is apply in basis on clinical view and results of diagnostics

In Spain, owing to the rise of international travels and immigration, the number of patients with imported infectious diseases has increased, many of them from tropical or subtropical areas. In parallel, there has been a multiplication in the number of scientific papers with Spanish authors about imported infections due to parasites, fungus, mycobacteriae, bacteriae or viruses. The risk for public health is low, althought for their correct prevention and control it is important to ease an universal access to healthcare and fair socioeconomic conditions, along with maintaining an updated clinical and epidemiological training of the health personnel. These nationwide measures must be supplemented with worldwide initiatives of global control of these infections.

Infectious myositis may be caused by a broad range of bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral agents. Infectious myositis is overall uncommon given the relative resistance of the musculature to infection. For example, inciting events, including trauma, surgery, or the presence of foreign bodies or devitalized tissue, are often present in cases of bacterial myositis. Bacterial causes are categorized by clinical presentation, anatomic location, and causative organisms into the categories of pyomyositis, psoas abscess, Staphylococcus aureus myositis, group A streptococcal necrotizing myositis, group B streptococcal myositis, clostridial gas gangrene, and nonclostridial myositis. Fungal myositis is rare and usually occurs among immunocompromised hosts. Parasitic myositis is most commonly a result of trichinosis or cystericercosis, but other protozoa or helminths may be involved. A parasitic cause of myositis is suggested by the travel history and presence of eosinophilia. Viruses may cause diffuse muscle involvement with clinical manifestations, such as benign acute myositis (most commonly due to influenza virus), pleurodynia (coxsackievirus B), acute rhabdomyolysis, or an immune-mediated polymyositis. The diagnosis of myositis is suggested by the clinical picture and radiologic imaging, and the etiologic agent is confirmed by microbiologic or serologic testing. Therapy is based on the clinical presentation and the underlying pathogen.

The heart can be the primary target for a viral, bacterial or parasitic infection (primary myocarditis/inflammatory cardiomyopathy). It can also participate in the "collateral damage" due to toxins, chemo- and cytokines, autoreactive antibodies or the native and acquired immune response through T- and B-cells, monocytes and macrophages (secondary myocarditis/inflammatory cardiomyopathy), when it is not the dominant organ of the disease. Infective agents show remarkable organ specificity: viral infections, toxic and autoreactive processes affect primarily the myocardium and the pericardium, whereas bacterial infections prefer endothelial surfaces and cause endocarditis and, less frequently, pericarditis. They are even discussed as part of the inflammatory process involved in coronary artery disease. Infective agents and their adequate diagnosis and treatment are discussed for these clinical entities according to current guidelines and clinical pathways.

Hematogenous osteomyelitis (HOM) in adults is a very rare event in industrialised countries. However, in tropical regions the morbidity of HOM is more important, primarily due to the impact of sickle cell disease, thalassemia, HIV-infection and tuberculosis. HOM is most commonly caused by pyogenic bacteria and mycobacteria, but infections by fungi, viruses and parasites must also be considered. In spite of modern diagnostic procedures such as nuclear and magnetic resonance imaging, the histopathologic and microbiologic examination of bone remains the gold standard for diagnosing OM. Other diagnoses should also be considered. Nonbacterial osteomyelitic lesions (plasmacellular OM, sclerosing OM, SAPHO syndrome) as well as acute leukemia, malignant bone tumors (i.e., Ewing's sarcoma, osteosarcoma) are conditions with similar presentations. Acute HOM is best managed by appropriate antibiotic therapy. In case of failure and in chronic HOM, surgical debridement is mandatory.

Infectious diarrhea is the largest single cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasites are the most common causative agents. Treatment in most cases of bacterial and viral diseases consists of correcting fluid loss and electrolyte imbalance by oral or parenteral rehydration. Antimicrobial therapy is reserved for very ill patients only. With the exception of Cryptosporidium, for which no effective agent is yet available, all protozoan infections are treatable with metronidazole.

The past decade has produced exciting advances in our knowledge of infectious diarrhea. The list of potential enteric pathogens continues to grow with both the identification of new organisms, e.g., E. coli serotype O157:H7, and the recognition that previously characterized microorganisms, e.g., M. avium-intracellulare, can also cause gastrointestinal disease in immunosuppressed patients. Multiple investigations have led to a greater understanding of the epidemiology and clinical features of these illnesses. Application of modern biological techniques has yielded a number of diagnostic assays that are just now becoming clinically relevant. New drugs and treatment modalities for enteric infections have been developed and are now being evaluated in clinical trials. Despite these advancements, however, many questions still remain unanswered. For example, the etiology of the debilitating diarrhea in AIDS patients in whom no known intestinal pathogen can be identified remains unknown. The mechanism of diarrhea due to Cryptosporidium, Isospora, and Giardia remains elusive. And last, will new intestinal vaccines be effective in preventing diarrheal disease? Certainly, the next decade of research in enteric diseases should prove to be even more interesting than the last.