On the Cause and Consequences of Coinfection: A General Mechanistic Framework of Within-Host Parasite Competition.

ABSTRACT: Coinfections pose serious threats to health and exacerbate parasite burden. If coinfection is detrimental, then what within-host factors facilitate it? Equally importantly, what hinders it, say via exclusion or priority effects? Such interactions ought to stem from their within-host environment ('niche'), that is, resources that parasites steal from hosts and immune cells that kill them. Yet, despite two decades of empirical focus on within-host infection dynamics, we lack a mechanistic framework to understand why coinfection arises and the diverse range of its' consequences. By applying ecological niche theory, our within-host competition models lay the foundational theoretical framework for pathogen coinfection. Here, we outline various within-host competition models. Then, we emphasise

SUBMITTER: Ramesh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12203456 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature