Nutrition, immunity, and malaria: strengthening host defense to reduce disease burden in low income endemic regions

Malaria and undernutrition remain overlapping public health challenges in many low- and middle-income endemic settings. Their relationship is complex and potentially bidirectional: inadequate dietary intake and deficiencies in macro- and micronutrients may alter immune and inflammatory responses to Plasmodium infection, while malaria can contribute to anaemia, metabolic disruption, reduced appetite, and impaired growth or nutritional recovery. These relationships may vary according to age, pregnancy status, transmission intensity, parasite species, co-infections, baseline nutritional status, and access to effective malaria prevention and care.Although epidemiological studies, mechanistic investigations, and nutritional intervention trials have examined aspects of the malaria–nutrition relationship, important uncertainties remain. Findings are often heterogeneous, nutritional status is measured inconsistently, and inflammation can complicate the interpretation of nutritional biomarkers. In addition, evidence from individual nutrients or tightly controlled interventions may not translate readily to communities experiencing recurrent infection, food insecurity, co-infections, and limited access to health services. The benefits and risks of supplementation (particularly iron supplementation) must therefore be evaluated in relation to baseline deficiency, malaria-control coverage, and the availability of prompt diagnosis and treatment.This Research Topic aims to advance a context-specific understanding of how nutritional status influences host immunity, malaria susceptibility, disease severity, treatment response, and recovery, and how malaria, in turn, affects nutritional status. It will bring together nutritional scientists, immunologists, clinicians, epidemiologists, agricultural and food-systems researchers, and implementation scientists. Particular emphasis will be placed on studies that connect biological mechanisms with clinically or programmatically relevant malaria outcomes.The collection seeks evidence that can inform safe, effective, equitable, and locally adaptable interventions addressing the combined burden of malaria and undernutrition. We welcome Original Research, Clinical Trials, Systematic Reviews, Reviews, Methods, Perspectives, and related article types addressing themes including, but not limited to:• Nutritional and metabolic determinants of innate and adaptive immune responses to Plasmodium infection• Associations of wasting, stunting, underweight, dietary inadequacy, and food insecurity with malaria infection, severity, recurrence, and recovery• Roles of iron, zinc, vitamin A, folate, vitamin D, and other nutrients in malaria susceptibility, pathogenesis, anaemia, treatment response, and convalescence• Nutritional immunity, iron regulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, and host–parasite competition for nutrients• Effects of malaria on appetite, nutrient metabolism, intestinal absorption, growth, and nutritional status• Nutritional biomarkers in malaria, including methods for distinguishing deficiency from infection- or inflammation-related changes• Nutritional interventions integrated with vector control, chemoprevention, vaccination, diagnosis, or malaria case management• Effectiveness, safety, timing, and targeting of micronutrient or multiple-nutrient supplementation in endemic settings• Differences across children, pregnant and lactating people, adolescents, adults, and other nutritionally or clinically vulnerable populations• Effects of transmission intensity, Plasmodium species, co-infections, socioeconomic conditions, and health-system access on nutrition–malaria relationships• Dietary, agricultural, or food-system interventions evaluated using explicit nutritional and malaria-related outcomes• Community-based nutrition education integrated with malaria prevention and care• Implementation research, economic evaluation, and locally led approaches to combined nutrition and malaria programmes• Potential harms, unintended effects, and ethical considerations associated with inappropriate or untargeted nutrient supplementation Topic editors: Erasto Vitus Mbugi, Godfrey TEMBA Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85450/nutrition-immunity-and-malaria-strengthening-host-defense-to-reduce-disease-burden-in-low-income-endemic-regions