Leishmaniasis, malaria, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness are parasitic infectious diseases that can infect a large range of vertebrate hosts, living inside of host cells. Leishmania live inside the phagocytic cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Plasmodium, a causative agent of malaria, infects hepatocytes and erythrocytes. Trypanosoma parasites cause Chagas disease and sleeping sickness by infecting cardiac muscle cells and central nervous system cells, respectively. Parasites can live in hostile conditions inside vertebrate and invertebrate hosts and regulate the host’s metabolic profile to favor survival. The success of infection establishment and parasite survival inside host cells depends on the mechanisms to subvert the recognition of molecules from the parasite and modulation of gene expression to disrupt the immune response. The parasites can interfere in mechanisms that control gene expression mediated by non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs, impacting the mounting of pro-inflammatory immune response and parasite wound healing. Transcriptomic, protemics and metabolomics analyses of parasite and host cells address the metabolic pathways involved in infectivity and immune response. Cytometry and microscopy techniques are tools that allow dissection of the interactions between parasite and host and helps us understand the nuances of these interactions.

This methods collection will cover:

 1. culture methods for infection analysis (flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, and intravital microscopy)

 2. parasite and host transcriptomic profiles

3. parasite and host metabolomic studies

4. immunometabolism and immune cell modulation (flow cytometry methods, bioluminescence techniques, oxygen consumption ratio (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) analysis)