Allergic asthma is a chronical pulmonary disease with high prevalence. It manifests as a maladaptive immune response to common airborne allergens and is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, eosinophilia, type 2 cytokine-associated inflammation, and mucus overproduction. Alveolar macrophages (AMs), although contributing to lung homeostasis and tolerance to allergens at steady state, have attracted less attention compared to professional antigen-presenting and adaptive immune cells in their contributions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInhibitors of serine peptidases (ISPs) expressed by Leishmania major enhance intracellular parasitism in macrophages by targeting neutrophil elastase (NE), a serine protease that couples phagocytosis to the prooxidative TLR4/PKR pathway. Here we investigated the functional interplay between ISP-expressing L. major and the kallikrein-kinin system (KKS).
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