Sylviane PIED

Information

Scientific interests and projects

TBIP scientific activities focus on (co)transmitted protozoan parasitic diseases in French Guiana Amazonia such as Malaria, Leishmaniasis and Toxoplasmosis. We aim at to elucidating common and divergent immune mechanisms associated with severe disease or protection induced by these protozoan parasite infections and their modulation by environmental parameters on disease outcome in the French Guiana Amazonian ecosystem, a region with abundant biodiversity and a multicultural, multiethnic population, in a “one health” strategy by capitalizing on the strength and multidisciplinary character of the new team consisting of clinicians working on the field, experts in molecular parasitology and epidemiology, and immunologists. The open questions this project will answer through a multidiciplinary integrated workprogram combining conceptual and methodological approaches with experimental and clinical studies are the following: what are the mechanisms of natural protective (or anti-disease) immunity that control the parasite and, limit collateral damage to the host? How are these processes impacted by internal (host) and external (environmental) factors? Does and how the parasite genotype influence the protective response? How do multiple co-transmitted parasites interact to give rise to protection or pathogenesis?

The French Amazonian region offers the possibility to study these different parameters in an integrated manner in exposed individuals. The project will also function within the framework of the LabEx CEBA: “Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia” and in the CNRS “Observatoire Homme-Milieux” OMH Oyapock station (http://ohmoyapock. in2p3.fr).

Our project fulfills the objective of the WP2 of the LabEx aiming at UNDERSTANDING PROTECTIVE IMMUNITY AND IMPROVING VACCINE DEVELOPMENT and particularly the specific aims 1) map new modulatory molecules and biomarkers underlying parasite infections and (ii) use immunomics to guide the search for more efficacious vaccines.

Top 5 publications of the last 5 years

1. Shrivastava SK, Dalko E, Delcroix-Genete D, Herbert F, Cazenave PA, Pied S. Uptake of parasite-derived vesicles by astrocytes and microglial phagocytosis of infected erythrocytes may drive neuroinflammation in cerebral malaria. Glia. 2017;65(1):75-92. DOI : 10.1002/glia.23075. 

2. Herbert F, Tchitchek N, Bansal D, Jacques J, Pathak S, Bécavin C, Fesel C, Dalko E, Cazenave PA, Preda C, Ravindran B, Sharma S, Das B, Pied S. Evidence of IL-17, IP-10, and IL-10 involvement in multiple-organ dysfunction and IL-17 pathway in acute renal failure associated to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. J Transl Med. 2015;13:369. DOI : 10.1186/s12967-015-0731-6. 

3. Leleu I, Genete D, Salomé-Desnoulez S, Saidi N, Brodin P, Lafont F, Tomavo S, Pied S. A noncanonical autophagy is involved in the transfer of Plasmodium-microvesicles to astrocytes. Autophagy. 2022;18(7):1583-1598. DOI : 10.1080/15548627.2021.1993704. 

4. Alloo J, Leleu I, Grangette C, Pied S. Parasite infections, neuroinflammation, and potential contributions of gut microbiota. Front Immunol. 2022;13:1024998. DOI : 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1024998. 

5. Dalko E, Das B, Herbert F, Fesel C, Pathak S, Tripathy R, Cazenave PA, Ravindran B, Sharma S, Pied S. Multifaceted Role of Heme during Severe Plasmodium falciparum Infections in India. Infect Immun. 2015;83(10):3793-3799. DOI : 10.1128/IAI.00531-15.