Editorial: Vectors and Vector-Borne Parasitic Diseases: Infection, Immunity, and Evolution

Vectors and Vector-Borne Parasitic Diseases: Infection, Immunity, and EvolutionThe (re)emergence and burden of vector-borne parasitic diseases (VBPDs) draws attention to vectors with the parasites they carry.These include, but are not limited to: anopheles-borne diseases (e.g., caused by Plasmodium); tick-borne diseases (e.g., caused by Babesia and Theileria); snail-borne diseases (e.g., caused by Schistosoma); sand fly-borne diseases (e.g., caused by Leishmania); and tsetse flyor triatomine bug-borne diseases (e.g., caused by Trypanosoma).Knowledge of vector and parasite biology is beginning to stimulate new concepts and tools for effective disease control.However, the mechanisms and pathways through which the development of parasites within vectors may enhance vector-mediated immune control or regulate interactions are not properly understood.In addition, the mechanisms by which hosts respond to parasite exposure and acquire immunity remain unclear.A further major challenge in combatting VBPDs is the high variability of a large repertoire of genes in the genome of a single parasite.The 14 articles of this themed Research Topic highlight the latest advances regarding vectors and VBPDs: infection, immunity, and evolution.Understanding the immunological machinery of host-parasite interactions will advance knowledge of VBPD mechanisms to track relevant immune and parasitic molecules that ensure protection or drive disease. Induction of humoral immunity is critical for clinical protection against infection. Antibody levels targeting antigens are predictive of infection and lay the basis for the identification of biomarkers of exposure/candidate antigens for serodiagnostics or vaccines.In this collection, Hou et al. advance knowledge of B-cell epitopes of 37 erythrocyte invasion-associated antigens of Plasmodium falciparum, which have been tested in clinical settings as vaccine candidates.They find that most immunogenic epitopes are predominantly located in the lowcomplexity regions of the proteins containing repetitive and/or glutamate-rich motifs, and the epitope-derived specific antibodies could not inhibit erythrocyte invasion (Hou et al.).These indicate that immune responses could be driven away from functional domains of P. falciparum proteins, which is an instructive finding for the rational design of blood-stage malaria vaccine candidates.In an in vitro and in vivo study, Wang et al. evaluate the potential applications of