Publications by authors named "Arkadi Kundik"
Article Synopsis
- The study examines the effects of a helminth (parasitic worm) infection in pigs, revealing that it significantly affects the immune response when combined with a bacterial infection, leading to higher bacterial loads.
- Experimental results show that coinfected pigs had depressed immune responses, including reduced interferon gamma and altered macrophage function, which negatively impacted their ability to control the bacterial infection.
- This demonstrates an important interaction between the helminth and bacterial infections, highlighting the consequences for both pig health and potential zoonotic implications for humans, particularly in regions with high rates of these infections.
Article Synopsis
- Helminth infections cause parasites to be unevenly distributed in hosts, prompting a study to see if early immune responses to Ascaris larvae lead to this pattern in susceptible vs. resistant mouse strains.
- Susceptible C57BL/6 mice showed a stronger immune response to the larvae compared to resistant CBA mice, which was linked to greater pathology, including higher levels of eosinophils in various tissues.
- Despite the increased immune response in susceptible mice, eosinophils were found to not be essential for controlling Ascaris larvae, indicating that a strong type 2 immune response can lead to more harm than good during early infection stages.
Article Synopsis
- Natural killer (NK) cells are crucial for fighting off Salmonella infections, especially in the initial stages.
- Research found that pigs infected with both Ascaris suum and Salmonella enterica showed significantly decreased NK cell activity compared to those with only Salmonella, as indicated by lower levels of important immune markers like IFN-γ and perforin.
- The study suggests that Ascaris infection weakens the NK cell response, making it harder for the host to combat additional bacterial infections like Salmonella.
spp. undergo extensive migration within the body before establishing patent infections in the small intestinal tract of humans and pigs. However, whether larval migration is critical for inducing efficient type 2 responses remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Helminth infections are an important public health problem in humans and have an even greater impact on domestic animal and livestock welfare. Current readouts for anthelmintic drug screening assays are stage development, migration, or motility that can be subjective, laborious, and low in throughput. The aim of this study was to apply and optimize a fluorometric technique using resazurin for evaluating changes in the metabolic activity of Ascaris suum third-stage larvae (L3), a parasite of high economic relevance in swine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intestinal helminths are extremely prevalent among humans and animals. In particular, intestinal roundworms affect more than 1 billion people around the globe and are a major issue in animal husbandry. These pathogens live in intimate contact with the host gut microbiota and harbor bacteria within their own intestines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHelminths produce excretory/secretory products (E/S) which can modulate the immune responses of their hosts. Dendritic cells (DC) are essential for initiating the host T cell response and are thus potential targets for modulation by helminth E/S. Here we study immunomodulation of porcine peripheral blood DC subsets following stimulation with E/S from , a common helminth of pigs with considerable public health and economic importance.
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