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

该项目将研究人类种群中宿主-病原体动力学的演变。研究人员将把重点放在膳食铁上，铁对生命至关重要，但也存在危害，包括它对病原体和个体宿主自身细胞的可利用性。宿主已经进化出多种机制来阻止感染因子获得铁，而感染因子，如细菌，已经进化出多种机制来从宿主那里获取铁，从而导致了一场关于铁的进化“军备竞赛”。该项目将促进对高病原体负荷人群中这种“军备竞赛”的基本认识，以了解饮食、铁营养、感染风险和生长发育之间的关系，以及人类如何适应高病原体环境。研究结果也可能为解决铁营养和缺铁问题的公共卫生努力提供信息。这项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，包括在科学领域代表性不足的群体。该项目评估缺铁和传染病高发人群中儿童的铁状况对免疫和感染的影响。在一年的时间里，参与研究的儿童将每月接受一次饮食、生长发育、铁摄入量、免疫功能和感染等方面的评估。将描述饮食作为缺铁和贫血原因的相对重要性。将比较铁状态组中细胞介导免疫受损的患病率和传染病的发病率。通过这种方式，本研究将致力于解开饮食、生长发育、铁营养、免疫和传染病之间复杂的相互作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.