Maternal stress increases risk of allergic lung inflammation in adult mice.

Background: Allergies are increasing worldwide. The presence of atopic diseases in the mother propagates the onset of allergic diseases in the offspring with a considerably stronger penetrance than atopic diseases of the father. Such observation challenges genetic predispositions as the sole cause of allergic diseases.

Contribution of Kazal-Like Domains of the Serine Protease Inhibitor-1 from Toxoplasma gondii in Asthma Therapeutic Vaccination Effectiveness.

Background: We have previously showed rTgPI-1 tolerogenic adjuvant properties in asthma treatment, turning it a promising candidate for allergen-specific immunotherapy. This therapy is an alternative treatment to control asthma that still presents several concerns related to its formulation. rTgPI-1 contains independent inhibitory domains able to inhibit trypsin and neutrophil elastase, both involved in asthma pathology.

Synergistic effect of GRA7 and profilin proteins in vaccination against chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection.

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease with worldwide prevalence in humans and warm-blooded animal populations. In livestock Toxoplasma gondii is the causal agent of significant economic losses since it can cause abortions in goats and sheep. It is estimated that one third of the world population is infected.

Chronic infection with the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii prevents the development of experimental atopic dermatitis in mice.

Background: Supporting the hypothesis thatT. gondii infection protects against allergy in humans we previously demonstrated that this infection can modulate not only the susceptibility to develop respiratory allergies in mice but also suppresses allergic responses at systemic level. This latter finding suggests that T.

Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii: The advantages of variable number tandem repeats within coding regions.

Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan which is widely distributed. Infection occurs as a result of ingestion of uncooked meat and exposure to cat feces. Immunocompetent individuals are generally asymptomatic, while severe disease may occur in immunocompromised subjects and in congenital toxoplasmosis, which is caused by transplacental acquisition of T.

Vaccine potential of antigen cocktails composed of recombinant Toxoplasma gondii TgPI-1, ROP2 and GRA4 proteins against chronic toxoplasmosis in C3H mice.

The development of an effective and safe vaccine to prevent Toxoplasma gondii infection is an important aim due to the great clinical and economic impact of this parasitosis. We have previously demonstrated that immunization with the serine protease inhibitor-1 (TgPI-1) confers partial protection to C3H/HeN and C57BL/6 mice. In order to improve the level of protection, in this work, we combined this novel antigen with ROP2 and/or GRA4 recombinant proteins (rTgPI-1+rROP2, rTgPI-1+rGRA4, rTgPI-1+rROP2+rGRA4) to explore the best combination against chronic toxoplasmosis in C3H/HeN mice.

Toxoplasma gondii serine-protease inhibitor-1: A new adjuvant candidate for asthma therapy.

Serine-proteases are important players in the pathogenesis of asthma, promoting inflammation and tissue remodeling. It's also known that many serine protease inhibitors display immunomodulatory properties. TgPI-1 is a Toxoplasma gondii protein that exhibits broad spectrum inhibitory activity against serine proteases.

The Knowns Unknowns: Exploring the Homologous Recombination Repair Pathway in Toxoplasma gondii.

Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan parasite of medical and veterinary importance which causes toxoplasmosis in humans. Great effort is currently being devoted toward the identification of novel drugs capable of targeting such illness. In this context, we believe that the thorough understanding of the life cycle of this model parasite will facilitate the identification of new druggable targets in T.

Homologous prime-boost strategy with TgPI-1 improves the immune response and protects highly susceptible mice against chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection.

Subunit-based vaccines are safer than live or attenuated pathogen vaccines, although they are generally weak immunogens. Thus, proper combination of immunization strategies and adjuvants are needed to increase their efficacy. We have previously protected C3H/HeN mice from Toxoplasma gondii infection by immunization with the serine protease inhibitor-1 (TgPI-1) in combination with alum.

Toxoplasma gondii infection modulate systemic allergic immune response in BALB/c mice.

The increased prevalence of allergies in developed countries has been attributed to a reduced exposure to some microbes. In agreement with epidemiological studies, we previously showed that Toxoplasma gondii infection prevents allergic airway inflammation. The mechanisms would be related to the strong Th1 response induced by the parasite and to regulatory cell induction.

Regulatory cells induced by acute toxoplasmosis prevent the development of allergic lung inflammation.

The increased prevalence of allergies in developed countries has been attributed to a reduction of some infections. Supporting epidemiological studies, we previously showed that both acute and chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection can diminish allergic airway inflammation in BALB/c mice. The mechanisms involved when sensitization occurs during acute phase would be related to the strong Th1 response induced by the parasite.

Toxoplasma gondii infection induces suppression in a mouse model of allergic airway inflammation.

Allergic asthma is an inflammatory disorder characterized by infiltration of the airway wall with inflammatory cells driven mostly by activation of Th2-lymphocytes, eosinophils and mast cells. There is a link between increased allergy and a reduction of some infections in Western countries. Epidemiological data also show that respiratory allergy is less frequent in people exposed to orofecal and foodborne microbes such as Toxoplasma gondii.

Combination of CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides with recombinant ROP2 or GRA4 proteins induces protective immunity against Toxoplasma gondii infection.

Synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides containing unmethylated CpG motifs (CpG-ODN) have been characterized as Th1-promoting immunopotentiators, an adjuvant activity desirable for vaccination against intracellular parasites like Toxoplasma gondii. In an attempt to find new antigen-adjuvant combinations that enhance the immunogenicity of antigen candidates for toxoplasma vaccines, we analyzed the extent of protection in mice immunized with ROP2 and GRA4 recombinant proteins when co-administered with CpG-ODN. Both GRA4+CpG-ODN and ROP2+CpG-ODN formulations were shown to induce a strong humoral Th1-biased response characterized by a high IgG(2a) to IgG(1) antibody ratio.