From Immune Privilege to Immune Signatures: Innate–Adaptive Crosstalk in Ocular Infection and Inflammation

Ocular infections and related inflammatory disorders are important causes of visual morbidity worldwide and may arise from viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic pathogens. The eye is a highly specialized immune environment shaped by immune privilege, tissue barriers, and tightly regulated inflammatory pathways that protect visual function while supporting host defense. During infection, this balance becomes especially complex, as innate sensing pathways, interferon responses, cytokine and chemokine networks, complement activation, and adaptive immune mechanisms must coordinate pathogen control while limiting collateral tissue damage to delicate ocular structures.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of how immune privilege, host–pathogen interactions, and innate–adaptive immune crosstalk shape infection outcomes and inflammatory pathology in the eye. We welcome mechanistic, translational, and clinical studies addressing how resident ocular cells, infiltrating immune populations, barrier integrity, and local and systemic immune networks contribute to pathogen clearance, immune-mediated injury, chronic inflammation, and recurrent disease across infectious ocular conditions. Particular interest will be given to studies that define immune signatures and biomarkers in ocular fluids or tissues, identify diagnostic or prognostic immune profiles, and explore therapeutic strategies that integrate antimicrobial treatment with immune modulation to improve clinical outcomes.Submissions are especially encouraged where ocular inflammation is clearly linked to infectious etiologies, microbial persistence, immune evasion, or infection-driven dysregulation of host responses. Topics of interest include innate sensing and antimicrobial defense, T- and B-cell responses, cytokine and complement pathways, immune cell trafficking, barrier dysfunction, molecular microbiology, and translational immune profiling in ocular infection. Studies addressing broader systemic influences, including microbiome-associated immune modulation or gut–eye immune interactions, are welcome where they provide clear relevance to microbial infection, host defense, and infection-associated ocular inflammation.We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:-Immune privilege and its role in ocular host defense during infection-Innate sensing pathways and pattern recognition receptors in ocular infection-Interferon signaling and early antimicrobial immune responses in the eye-Innate–adaptive immune crosstalk in pathogen clearance and immunopathology-T-cell and B-cell responses in viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic ocular infections-Host–pathogen interactions, antigen persistence, and immune evasion in ocular tissues-Cytokine, chemokine, complement, and inflammasome pathways in infection-associated ocular inflammation-Barrier integrity, blood-retinal barrier dysfunction, and immune cell trafficking during infection-Immune signatures, biomarkers, and translational diagnostics in ocular fluids and tissues-Molecular microbiology and pathogen detection strategies relevant to ocular inflammatory disease-Biomarker-guided and host-directed therapies that balance antimicrobial treatment with immunomodulation-Systemic and microbiome-related influences on infection-associated ocular immune responses Topic editors: DIMITRIOS KALOGEROPOULOS, Chrysanthi Tsika Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80670/from-immune-privilege-to-immune-signatures-innate-adaptive-crosstalk-in-ocular-infection-and-inflammation