Microbial Co-infections in the Host: Synergy, Competition, and Immune Modulation

Microbial co-infections, such as bacterial-bacterial, bacterial-viral or bacterial-fungal can reshape disease severity and treatment outcomes by altering pathogen metabolism, nutrient availability, and host immune function in ways that remain poorly defined. This research topic will showcase mechanistic and translational studies that dissect how co-infecting microbes adapt their behavior, establish interspecies interactions, and compete or cooperate for limiting nutrients within the host during intracellular and tissue-associated infection. Additionally, it will explore the impact to host immune responses. Submissions are encouraged that apply omics-based approaches such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, and genome-scale metabolic modelling to map interactions across pathogen-pathogen-host triads, including clinically important settings such as respiratory and chronic infections. The topic welcomes articles that link metabolic phenotypes to pathogenicity mechanisms, persistence, antimicrobial tolerance, and opportunities for prevention or treatment, especially strategies that identify metabolic vulnerabilities, synergistic drug targets, or host-directed interventions relevant to human and animal health. This collection is open to the exploration of mechanisms deployed in polymicrobial infections to modulate host immune responses. We also welcome articles that explore infection models that provide insights into bacterial co-infections. As we explore the co-infection topic, potential article types and study areas include, but are not limited to:• Original research on metabolic interactions between microbes in lung tissue, granulomas, or extrapulmonary niches.• Studies of polymicrobial biofilms, highlighting nutrient competition, metabolic cross-feeding, and microenvironmental heterogeneity.• Investigations into how microbial co-infections alter antimicrobial susceptibility, tolerance, or persistence, including synergistic or antagonistic effects on resistance evolution.• Work on host immune responses to microbial co-infections, including immune modulation, immune exhaustion, or dysregulated inflammation that shapes pathogen coexistence and disease severity.• Examination of microbial mechanisms applied in a co-infection setting to alter host immune responses.• Development or evaluation of diagnostic approaches (e.g., multiplex PCR, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, targeted sequencing, or rapid phenotypic assays) to detect and characterize microbial co-infections.• Application of systems biology, multi-omics, and computational modeling to map metabolic networks, signaling pathways, and spatial organization within polymicrobial infections.• Experimental models (in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo) that recapitulate polymicrobial infection dynamics, including organoids, microfluidic systems, and animal models tailored to co-infection biology.• Research on treatment strategies for microbial co-infections, such as optimized antibiotic/antifungal/antiviral combinations, anti-biofilm therapies, phage-based approaches, or host-directed interventions.• Investigations into healthcare- and device-associated polymicrobial infections (e.g., catheters, prosthetic devices, wound infections) that illuminate bacterial–bacterial and host–pathogen interactions.• Perspective, review, or mini-review articles synthesizing current knowledge, clinical guidelines, and future research priorities on the detection, management, and prevention of polymicrobial infections. Topic editors: Khushboo Borah Slater, Wujun Jiang, Gabriella Piatti Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79503/microbial-co-infections-in-the-host-synergy-competition-and-immune-modulation