Links between Innate and Adaptive Immunity Can Favor Evolutionary Persistence of Immunopathology.

ABSTRACT: Immunopathology, or the harm caused to an organism's own tissues during the activation of its immune system, carries substantial costs. Moreover, avoiding this self-harm may be an important mechanism underlying tolerance of infection, helping to reducing fitness costs without necessarily clearing parasites. Despite the apparent benefits of minimizing immunopathology, such damage persists across a range of host species. Prior work has explored a trade-off with resistance during a single infection as a potential driver of this persistence, with some collateral damage being unavoidable when killing parasites. Here, we present an additional trade-off that could favor the continued presence of immunopathology: robust immune responses during initial infection (e.g., innate immunity in vertebrate

SUBMITTER: Cressler CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11428335 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature