AUTHOR=Chakraborty Shalini , Roy Sonti , Mistry Hiral Uday , Murthy Shweta , George Neena , Bhandari Vasundhra , Sharma Paresh 

TITLE=Potential Sabotage of Host Cell Physiology by Apicomplexan Parasites for Their Survival Benefits

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01261

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2017.01261

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium, Babesia</italic>, and <italic>Theileria</italic> are the major apicomplexan parasites affecting humans or animals worldwide. These pathogens represent an excellent example of host manipulators who can overturn host signaling pathways for their survival. They infect different types of host cells and take charge of the host machinery to gain nutrients and prevent itself from host attack. The mechanisms by which these pathogens modulate the host signaling pathways are well studied for <italic>Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium</italic>, and <italic>Theileria</italic>, except for limited studies on <italic>Babesia</italic>. <italic>Theileria</italic> is a unique pathogen taking into account the way it modulates host cell transformation, resulting in its clonal expansion. These parasites majorly modulate similar host signaling pathways, however, the disease outcome and effect is different among them. In this review, we discuss the approaches of these apicomplexan to manipulate the host–parasite clearance pathways during infection, invasion, survival, and egress.</p>