Role of the Complement System in the Modulation of T-Cell Responses in Chronic Chagas Disease.

Chagas disease, caused by the intracellular pathogen , is the parasitic disease with the greatest impact in Latin America and the most common cause of infectious myocarditis in the world. The immune system plays a central role in the control of infection but at the same time needs to be controlled to prevent the development of pathology in the host. It has been shown that persistent infection with induces exhaustion of parasite-specific T cell responses in subjects with chronic Chagas disease.

Immune exhaustion in chronic Chagas disease: Pro-inflammatory and immunomodulatory action of IL-27 in vitro.

In chronic Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi-specific T-cell function decreases over time, and alterations in the homeostatic IL-7/IL-7R axis are evident, consistent with a process of immune exhaustion. IL-27 is an important immunoregulatory cytokine that shares T-cell signaling with IL-7 and other cytokines of the IL-12 family and might be involved in the transcriptional regulation of T-cell function. Here, we evaluated the expression and function of IL-27R in antigen-experienced T cells from subjects with chronic Chagas disease and assessed whether in vitro treatment with IL-27 and IL-7 might improve T.