Manipulation of host response and trajectory of parasite survival: A damage-response framework perspective.

Damage-Response Framework shows disease outcomes depend on host immune response, with parasite survival and damage varying across infections.

• Why it matters: Understanding how host-parasite interactions influence disease can improve diagnostics and therapies, addressing the variability in clinical manifestations of parasitic infections.
• What they did: The review discusses examples including Blastocystis spp., Toxoplasma gondii, and Trichinella spiralis, illustrating how immune response, parasite traits, and environment shape disease heterogeneity within the DRF.
• The result: Applying the DRF offers a basis for mechanism-based diagnostics and personalized treatments, emphasizing host damage as a key endpoint for managing parasitic diseases.