Protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and Toxoplasma gondii are major causes of parasitic diseases in both humans and animals. The immune system plays a critical role against protozoa, but their immune mechanism remains poorly understood. This highlights the need to investigate the function of immune cells involved in the process of parasite infections and the responses of host immune system to parasite infections. Mast cells (MCs) are known to be central players in allergy and anaphylaxis, and it has been demonstrated that MCs have crucial roles in host defense against a number of different pathogens, including parasites. To date, there are many studies that have examined the interaction of helminth-derived antigens and MCs. As one of the major effector cells, MCs also play an important role in the immune response against some parasitic protozoa, but their role in protozoan infections is, however, less well characterized. Herein, we review the current knowledge about the roles of MCs and their mediators during infections involving highly pathogenic protozoa including Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and T. gondii. We offer a general review of the data from patients and experimental animal models infected with the aforementioned protozoa, which correlate MCs and MC-derived mediators with exacerbated inflammation and disease progression as well as protection against the parasitic infections in different circumstances. This review updates our current understanding of the roles of MCs during parasitic protozoan infections, and the participation of MCs in parasitic protozoan infections could be of a potential therapeutic target.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 July 2023.
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#7,396,417
of 26,371,446 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in immunology
#8,272
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Outputs of similar age
#107,040
of 328,523 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in immunology
#152
of 415 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,371,446 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 33,058 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.6. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 415 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
