Human adaptation in high-pathogen environments: iron, infection, and child growth and development

这个项目将研究人类种群中宿主-病原体动态的进化。研究人员将把重点放在膳食铁上，它对生命至关重要，但也存在危险，包括它对病原体和个体宿主自身细胞的可用性。宿主进化出了多种机制来阻止铁接触感染源，而细菌等感染源也进化出了一系列不同的机制来从宿主那里获取铁，导致了一场进化中的铁“军备竞赛”。该项目将促进关于高病原体载量人群中这场“军备竞赛”的基础知识，了解饮食、铁营养、感染风险和生长发育之间的关系，以及人类可能如何适应高病原体环境。研究结果还可能为解决铁营养和缺铁问题的公共卫生努力提供信息。这一国际合作将包括为本科生和研究生提供实地和实验室培训机会，包括在科学领域任职人数不足的群体。该项目评估了铁状况对缺铁和传染病发病率高的人群中儿童免疫和感染的影响。在为期一年的时间里，参与的儿童将每月接受饮食、生长发育、铁摄入量、免疫功能和感染等指标的评估。作为铁缺乏和贫血的原因，饮食的相对重要性将被描述。细胞免疫功能受损的患病率和传染病的发病率将在不同铁状态组之间进行比较。通过这种方式，这项研究将致力于理清饮食、生长和发育、铁营养、免疫和传染病之间的复杂互动。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the evolution of host-pathogen dynamics in human populations. The investigators will focus on dietary iron, which is vital for life, but also presents hazards, including its availability to pathogens as well as an individual host's own cells. Hosts have evolved multiple mechanisms to withhold iron from infectious agents, and infectious agents, such as bacteria, have evolved a diverse array of mechanisms to acquire iron from their hosts, resulting in an evolutionary "arms race" over iron. The project will advance fundamental knowledge about this "arms race" in a human population with high pathogen load, to understand how diet, iron nutrition, infection risk, and growth and development are related, and how humans may have adapted to high pathogen environments. The research findings may also inform public health efforts to address iron nutrition and deficiency. This international collaboration will include both field and laboratory training opportunities for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including groups under-represented in science. This project evaluates the impact of iron status on immunity and infection among children in a population with high rates of iron deficiency and infectious disease. Over the course of one year, participating children will be evaluated monthly for measures of diet, growth and development, iron intake, immune function and infection. The relative importance of diets as causes of iron deficiency and anemia will be described. The prevalence of impaired cell-mediated immunity and incidence of infectious diseases will be compared across iron status groups. In this manner, this study will work toward disentangling the complex interactions between diet, growth and development, iron nutrition, immunity, and infectious disease.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.