Special Issue "Parasitic Helminths: Drug Resistance, Control and Immune Evasion"

Dear Colleagues,

Parasite helminths are globally distributed and highly prevalent metazoan pathogens, with billions of individuals infected worldwide with diseases such as schistosomiasis or lymphatic filariasis. They are also responsible for important veterinary diseases such as gastrointestinal helminthiasis and dirofilariasis, respectively, in livestock and companion animals, leading to significant economic losses. Treatment and control of helminthiasis are limited and rely on a few anthelmintic classes for which mass drug administration has already led to widespread drug resistance in nematodes, and threats extend to trematodes and cestodes. No recombinant vaccines are available. Alternative treatment strategies are urgently needed. In this context, understanding the essential physiological and developmental processes of helminth biology is crucial to the identification of novel means to control these parasites.

Some helminths live for years in their host due to their ability to evade the host immune system and survive under drug pressure. Schistosoma spp. and other helminths release excreted/secreted products that have immunomodulatory properties, contributing to parasite-parasite and host–parasite communication. Nematodes such as Haemonchus or Dirofilaria have developed mechanisms of resistance to anthelmintics, threatening current control of these important veterinary parasites. Unravelling the molecular mechanisms and cellular pathways by which the parasites either evade the host immune system or survive drug pressure could provide new strategies to combat helminthiasis.

I invite colleagues investigating any of these mechanisms in helminths to submit their manuscripts to this Special Issue in the form of original research and reviews.

Dr. Thavy Long
Prof. Dr. Timothy G. Geary
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• helminth
• parasite
• host–parasite interaction
• drug resistance
• control