Editorial: Immune-Related Non-Communicable Diseases in Africa

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Immune-Related Non-Communicable Diseases in AfricaThe African continent has a long-standing tradition of research in communicable diseases.Indeed, several national, regional, and international agencies are investing in understanding the pathogenesis of and immunity to infection, particularly those diseases which are endemic to the continent and responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality, notably HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.More recently, interesting efforts have been made to encourage and support research in the field of neglected tropical diseases.In contrast, with few exceptions African immunologists are less involved in researching other immune-mediated diseases such as allergy, cancer, autoimmunity, inborn errors of immunity (IEI), and auto-inflammation despite an expansion of the burden of these diseases on the African continent, commensurate with the epidemiological transition from infectious diseases to chronic, non-communicable diseases.Public health authorities are reporting a surge of non-communicable diseases.Their particularities in African populations are interesting challenges worthy of investigation.To dissect the immunological mechanisms underlying several of these immune-mediated noncommunicable diseases and highlight their specificities in Africa were the aims of this Research Topic.The frontiers between communicable and non-communicable diseases also require exploration, such as host genetic susceptibility to infection, and the interplay between allergy and parasitic infection.Ten articles were included in this Research Topic and classified into the following categories: six original and not original research manuscripts (Elhaj Mahmoud et al., Tahiat et al., Engelbrecht et al., Harrison et al., Sibanda et al., Ait Ssi et al.); three case reports (Rais et al., Snen et al., Belaid et al.) and one review (Ghouzlani et al.).Three original research papers explored immune mechanisms underlying autoimmune and rheumatological conditions.Sibanda et al. investigated systemic sclerosis in Zimbabwe, an autoimmune disease that is rarely reported in Africa.In a large cohort of 240 patients, they showed that specific autoantibodies are biomarkers of the condition and can precede overt disease.Autoantibodies also determine disease phenotypes and vary between racial groups.Elhaj Mahmoud et al. studied the pro-inflammatory activity of Wnt5a in rheumatoid arthritis tissue-derived fibroblast-like synoviocytes.They showed that this activity is enhanced in vitro in the presence of SFRP5 through mechanisms involving the inhibition of TCF4 and LRP5 expression.These findings may contribute to the identification of potential therapeutic targets.In another contribution, Harrison et al. described features of the arthropathy rarely observed in children with advanced HIV

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