Exposure and susceptibility of human populations to infectious agents
This axis aims at better understanding the biological, environmental and socio-demographic determinants of susceptibility to zoonotic and arboviral infections within human populations of La Réunion and Island states of southwestern Indian Ocean.
Objectifs
This axis aims at better understanding the biological, environmental and socio-demographic determinants of susceptibility to zoonotic and arboviral infections within human populations of La Réunion and Island states of southwestern Indian Ocean. The island’s settlement history, marked by extensive genetic admixture, combined with high regional exposure to emerging pathogens, provides a unique framework to investigate the role of the exposome and the hologenome in infectious disease dynamics. Ultimately, this work seeks to improve early detection of emerging infections, strengthen prevention strategies, and improve the health care of vulnerable human populations.
Approches
Research is based on hospital and population cohorts established at the University Hospital of La Réunion, enabling an integrated investigation of infectious exposure, human genetic diversity and associated microbiota. A first component documents the history of exposure to infectious agents through targeted and high-throughput serological analyses, including PhiP-seq and BioPlex approaches, allowing the detection of viral, bacterial and fungal microbes, including those involved in silent transmission. A second component relies on metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and culturomics to characterise microbiota composition, antimicrobial resistance and host–microbiota interactions, combined with human genomic analyses to link selected immune variants with susceptibility to infection. Finally, a third component focuses on the identification of diagnostic and severity biomarkers — circulating antigens, inflammatory signatures and antigenic determinants — to improve prognosis, diagnosis and hospital care of severe infections.