Emerging infectious diseases are becoming more frequent, complex, and difficult to control in a scenario of global change. In the past decades, outbreaks such as malaria, SARS-CoV2, West Nile virus, and Ebola have disrupted public health systems, threatened biodiversity conservation, and imposed substantial economic burdens worldwide. These crises highlight the urgent need for integrative health management, with the "One-World, One Health" initiative providing a key framework for addressing the interconnected health of humans, animals, and the environment through global collaboration. Malaria represents a longstanding and devastating global health challenge but, despite intensive research efforts, malaria remains a persistent issue in developing countries, exacerbated by its impacts on wildlife, including the decline and extinction of avian populations. The MATHORMAL project seeks to address a fundamental gap in our understanding of malaria susceptibility by exploring how prenatal hormonal effects shape individual physiological traits that influence infection susceptibility. Maternal effects, particularly those mediated by androgens, play a pivotal role in shaping offspring phenotypes, influencing their growth, immune responses, and life-history traits. Avian eggs contain various amounts of these maternally derived hormones that could adjust the offspring development to post-hatching environment. The project was guided by three overarching research objectives:
1. Investigating Immune Costs of Hormone-Mediated Maternal Effects: To determine whether high prenatal exposure to hormones, such as testosterone (T), induces delayed immune costs that increase susceptibility to malaria infection in adulthood.
2. Linking Telomere Dynamics to Malaria Susceptibility: To explore whether early-life telomere length predicts individual vulnerability to malaria infection and whether malaria susceptibility explains delayed telomere shortening caused by maternal hormonal effects.
3. Examining the Role of the Uropygial Gland Microbiome: To assess whether hormone-mediated maternal effects alter the uropygial gland’s microbial community, influencing the susceptibility to malaria through changes in vector-host dynamics.
Regarding the pathway to impact, MATHORMAL addresses critical gaps in understanding the physiological and ecological mechanisms that underpin individual variability in malaria susceptibility. By linking maternal hormonal effects, immune function, telomere dynamics, and the microbiome, this project aims to deliver novel insights that could be applied across several domains such as Scientific Impact, Public Health Applications, Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity, and Global Health Policy and Strategy. Our findings will have wide-reaching implications, from advancing basic science to informing applied health and conservation strategies. By elucidating the role of prenatal hormonal programming in disease susceptibility, MATHORMAL could transform how we approach the prevention and management of malaria and other vector-borne diseases. The insights generated will contribute to a more holistic and proactive framework for global health, directly supporting efforts to mitigate the interconnected challenges of emerging diseases, biodiversity loss, and environmental change.
