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      Eliminating the Neglected Tropical Diseases: Translational Science and New Technologies

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          Abstract

          Today, the World Health Organization recognizes 17 major parasitic and related infections as the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Despite recent gains in the understanding of the nature and prevalence of NTDs, as well as successes in recent scaled-up preventive chemotherapy strategies and other health interventions, the NTDs continue to rank among the world’s greatest global health problems. For virtually all of the NTDs (including those slated for elimination under the auspices of a 2012 London Declaration for NTDs and a 2013 World Health Assembly resolution [WHA 66.12]), additional control mechanisms and tools are needed, including new NTD drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and vector control agents and strategies. Elimination will not be possible without these new tools. Here we summarize some of the key challenges in translational science to develop and introduce these new technologies in order to ensure success in global NTD elimination efforts.

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          Most cited references60

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          Control of neglected tropical diseases.

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            Incorporating a Rapid-Impact Package for Neglected Tropical Diseases with Programs for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria

            Hotez et al. argue that achieving success in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria may well require a concurrent attack on the neglected tropical diseases.
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              Evolution of mosquito preference for humans linked to an odorant receptor

              Female mosquitoes are major vectors of human disease and the most dangerous are those that preferentially bite humans. A ‘domestic’ form of the mosquito Aedes aegypti has evolved to specialize in biting humans and is the major worldwide vector of dengue, yellow fever, and Chikungunya viruses. The domestic form coexists with an ancestral, animal-biting ‘forest’ form along the coast of Kenya. We collected the two forms, established laboratory colonies, and document striking divergence in preference for human versus animal odour. We further show that the evolution of preference for human odour in domestic mosquitoes is tightly linked to increases in the expression and ligand-sensitivity of the odorant receptor AaegOr4, which we found recognises a compound present at high levels in human odour. Our results provide a rare example of a gene contributing to behavioural evolution and provide insight into how disease-vectoring mosquitoes came to specialise on humans.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS Negl Trop Dis
                PLoS Negl Trop Dis
                plos
                plosntds
                PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1935-2727
                1935-2735
                2 March 2016
                March 2016
                : 10
                : 3
                : e0003895
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America
                [2 ]Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Geneva, Switzerland
                [3 ]Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Delhi, India
                [4 ]Foundation for Innovative new Diagnostics (FIND), Geneva, Switzerland
                [5 ]Yale School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
                [6 ]National Institute for Medical Research, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
                [7 ]Carlos Slim Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico
                [8 ]UNICEF/UNDP/ World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), Geneva, Switzerland
                New York Blood Center, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                We have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Peter J. Hotez is principal investigator and patent holder on vaccines against hookworm and schistosomiasis, as well as principal investigator on several other vaccines in development against Neglected Tropical Diseases.

                Article
                PNTD-D-15-00400
                10.1371/journal.pntd.0003895
                4774924
                26934395
                02ef6854-77ce-45f9-a3eb-2c7434776765
                © 2016 Hotez et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 0, Pages: 14
                Funding
                The Article Processing Charges for this paper were funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which also provided funding for a commissioning fee of US$2,000. The authors donated their US$2,000 commissioning fee to the END Fund, which funds mass drug administration for NTDs (see www.end.org). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Review
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Tropical Diseases
                Neglected Tropical Diseases
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Infectious Diseases
                Infectious Disease Control
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccines
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccines
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Preventive Medicine
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccines
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Preventive Medicine
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Global Health
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Epidemiology
                Disease Vectors
                Insect Vectors
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Parasitic Diseases
                Helminth Infections
                Schistosomiasis
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Tropical Diseases
                Neglected Tropical Diseases
                Schistosomiasis
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Pharmacology
                Drug Research and Development

                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                Infectious disease & Microbiology

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