Malnutrition and Immune System

Dear Colleagues,

The functional capabilities of the immune system and the host resistance to infection rely on nutritional status. The recent Covid-19 pandemic revealed the impact of poor nutrition on vulnerability to infection complications.

Malnutrition is a state of nutrition in which a deficiency or excess (or imbalance) of energy, protein, fats, and other nutrients leads to assessable adverse effects on every system in the body, and always results in increased susceptibility to illness, increased complications, and even death.

Marginal intakes of critical vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids are necessary for a robust immune system able to fight infection. Moreover, the presence of malnutrition is further exacerbated by the declining gastrointestinal uptake of micronutrients and macronutrients that may occur in high-risk populations living with chronic diseases or being of advanced age.

The purpose of this Special Issue on “Malnutrition and the Immune system” is to offer a novel insight into the effects of nutrition status on immunity. We aim to gather a series of manuscripts on how poor nutrition status influences immune cell homeostasis and on how a balanced diet composed of nutrients vital to health may reduce infection and disease progression, while improving recovery during the course of the disease.

Dr. Anastasia Z. Kalea
Prof. Dr. Elizabeth C Jury
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.