Scope

Infectious Agents and Disease (IAD) aims to publish the outcome of high-quality original research that advances our understanding of infectious agents causing dysbiotic conditions, “classical”, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans as well as in animals and humans in the case of zoonotic infectious diseases. The editorial board of IAD will consider work performed with all agents capable of infecting humans, including bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses, as causal agents of disease or as participants in mixed infections that lead to complex pathogenic changes in the structure and function of the infected host independent of the mode of transmission. The section welcomes reports on infectious agents transmitted directly (host to host) or indirectly (fomite-, food, soil-, water- or vector-borne, zoonotic facilitated by domesticated or wildlife animals) whether they are obligate or opportunistic causal agents of human disease including infections acquired in healthcare settings.

Over the past decades, genome-informed studies have revealed a much wider than expected diversity in the molecular underpinnings of pathogenicity in a given species. Therefore, IAD welcomes manuscripts that employ cellular, molecular genetic and evolutionary, biochemical as well as biophysical approaches to decipher aspects of the infectious and pathogenic capacity of causal agents whether they result from genetic drift or shift, gain or loss of function leading to new variants over evolutionary time or during infection and pathogenesis.  

In line with the above-mentioned interest in the diversity of infectious agents, the section welcomes studies deciphering the molecular bases of the epidemic success of established, emerging or re-emerging pathogens. Since the onset of medical microbiology, most studies aiming to identify the molecular or cellular bases of an infectious disease, used a reference pathogenic organism, isolated mostly during the 1950s or 1960s, that may be not relevant anymore today. Therefore, the section welcomes particularly experimental pathogenicity studies that better represent the diversity of the pathogenic species including epidemic clones or variants.

In addition to studies aiming to gain knowledge in the diversity of infectious agents and their pathogenicity mechanism, the section welcomes applied research studies that may lead to the development of rapid and accurate identification tests (e.g., molecular, antigenic, serological tests; dedicated pathogen databases) and the development of adapted prevention/treatment measures or strategies. 

The section welcomes submissions of all article types listed here.

Submission

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