From rejection to symbiosis. Human-infectious agents relations : a general theory of physiology and pathology. The contribution of tropical medicine. Francis Parc, Didier Vitrac, Jean-Pierre Cambus

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Francis Parc, Didier Vitrac, Jean-Pierre Cambus. From rejection to symbiosis. Human-infectious agents relations : a general theory of physiology and pathology. The contribution of tropical medicine.. 2012. ￿hal-01448631￿

HAL Id: hal-01448631 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01448631 Preprint submitted on 28 Jan 2017

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 From rejection to symbiosis. Human-infectious agents relations : a general theory of physiology and pathology. The contribution of tropical medicine

Francis PARC †(1), Didier VITRAC (2)*, Jean-Pierre CAMBUS (3)

(1) M.D., Medical biologist of military health service, Pathologist

(2) Pharmacist, Medical biologist, Medical documentalist. Centre hospitalier universitaire Sud

Réunion. B.P 350. 97448 Saint Pierre Cedex, France

(3) M.D., University assistant professor, Medical hematologist. Centre hospitalier universitaire de

Rangueil. 1, avenue du Pr Jean Poulhès 31059 Toulouse Cedex, France

*Corresponding author : Didier VITRAC. Centre de documentation et télématique médicale. Centre hospitalier universitaire Sud Réunion. B.P 350. 97448 Saint Pierre Cedex, France

Tel. +262 262 27 26 47. Fax. +262 262 27 26 47. Email. [email protected] 2 Abstract In this paper, the word symbiosis (from the Greek Sumbiōsis ) is used in its original sense and refers to all organisms which interact with each other, whether this association is beneficial, neutral or harmful to the host (mutualism, commensalism and parasitism). Symbiosis is found in every aspect of the living world. It is seen between infectious agents, in tropical disease vectors, in the human body and in illnesses. Immune-dependent symbiosis between infectious agents and the host is an opposite and complementary mechanism to defense and rejection immunity. This duality is found in many biological functions. Our comprehensive, compelling theory provides an overview of the different sites and mechanisms where symbiosis may occur. These symbioses are ongoing, four- dimensional evolutionary processes. They are gradually shifting away from phenotypic symbioses, including exosymbioses (metazoans, protozoa, yeasts, , ), tissular endosymbioses (metazoans, yeast), toward cytoplasmic and nuclear endosymbioses (protozoa, yeasts, bacteria, RNA viruses), before finally arriving at genomic endosymbioses (mitochondrial DNA, DNA viruses, retroviruses, transposable elements), which is the ultimate goal of symbiotic evolution, giving rise to new human genes. The phenotype/genotype boundary is thus traversable. A immunological process that initially takes an immunopathologic inflammatory form, but develops into a non-inflammatory immuno-physiological state. A process that leads from parasitism to mutualism and commensalism, and ultimately to the emergence of new species. This article hinges on the primary author’s extensive experience in tropical medicine allied with meticulous bibliographic research. Our intention is to offer a fresh perspective on the different forms of physiological and pathological symbioses in humans and illustrate them with examples. The general control mechanisms of symbiosis are discussed including immune toler