Schistosomiasis is a disease of global significance, with severity and pathology directly related to how the host responds to infection. The immunological narrative of schistosomiasis has been constructed through decades of study, with researchers often focussing on isolated time points, cell types and tissue sites of interest. However, the field currently lacks a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of the immune trajectory of schistosomiasis over infection and across multiple tissue sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are potent producers of type I IFN (IFN-I) during viral infection and respond to IFN-I in a positive feedback loop that promotes their function. IFN-I shapes dendritic cell responses during helminth infection, impacting their ability to support Th2 responses. However, the role of pDCs in type 2 inflammation is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere malaria anemia is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality arising from infection with . The pathogenesis of malarial anemia is complex, involving both parasite and host factors. As mouse models of malaria also develop anemia, they can provide a useful resource to study the impact of infections and the resulting host innate immune response on erythropoiesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Transl Immunology
November 2019
This article summarises recent advances reported at the 9th Lorne Infection and Immunity Conference. This exciting conference hosted speakers in the fields of innate and adaptive responses to infection including host-pathogen interactions as well as novel strategies for the detection, control and treatment of infectious diseases such as fluorescent antibiotics and vaccine development. Host-pathogen studies focused on a broad range of pathogens including malaria, CMV, influenza, dengue and Zika viruses, listeria and tuberculosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) presents an increasing threat to public health, with antimicrobial resistance on the rise and infections endemic in the hospital setting. Despite a global research effort to understand and combat antimicrobial resistance, less work has focused on understanding the nuances in the immunopathogenesis of clinical strains. In particular, there is a surprising gap of knowledge in the literature pertaining to how clinical strains are recognized by dendritic cells (DCs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalaria remains a serious threat to global health. Sustained malaria control and, eventually, eradication will only be achieved with a broadly effective malaria vaccine. Yet a fundamental lack of knowledge about how antimalarial immunity is acquired has hindered vaccine development efforts to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDendritic cells are key linkers of innate and adaptive immunity. Efficient dendritic cell activation is central to the acquisition of immunity and the efficacy of vaccines. Understanding how dendritic cells are affected by blood-stage parasites will help to understand how immunity is acquired and maintained, and how vaccine responses may be impacted by malaria infection or exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDouble-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is a common by-product of viral infections and acts as a potent trigger of antiviral immunity. In the nematode C. elegans, sid-1 encodes a dsRNA transporter that is highly conserved throughout animal evolution, but the physiological role of SID-1 and its orthologs remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType 2 inflammation is a defining feature of infection with parasitic worms (helminths), as well as being responsible for widespread suffering in allergies. However, the precise mechanisms involved in T helper (Th) 2 polarization by dendritic cells (DCs) are currently unclear. We have identified a previously unrecognized role for type I IFN (IFN-I) in enabling this process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogenesis of malaria infections is linked to remodeling of erythrocytes, a process dependent on the trafficking of hundreds of parasite-derived proteins into the host erythrocyte. Recent studies have demonstrated that the Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins (PTEX) serves as the central gateway for trafficking of these proteins, as inducible knockdown of the core PTEX constituents blocked the trafficking of all classes of cargo into the erythrocyte. However, the role of the auxiliary component PTEX88 in protein export remains less clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDendritic cells (DCs) are the key initiators of T-helper (Th) 2 immune responses against the parasitic helminth Schistosoma mansoni. Although the liver is one of the main sites of antigen deposition during infection with this parasite, it is not yet clear how distinct DC subtypes in this tissue respond to S. mansoni antigens in vivo, or how the liver microenvironment might influence DC function during establishment of the Th2 response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDendritic cells (DCs) direct CD4(+) T-cell differentiation into diverse helper (Th) subsets that are required for protection against varied infections. However, the mechanisms used by DCs to promote Th2 responses, which are important both for immunity to helminth infection and in allergic disease, are currently poorly understood. We demonstrate a key role for the protein methyl-CpG-binding domain-2 (Mbd2), which links DNA methylation to repressive chromatin structure, in regulating expression of a range of genes that are associated with optimal DC activation and function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short non-coding RNA that play important roles in disease processes in animals and are present in a highly stable cell-free form in body fluids. Here, we examine the capacity of host and parasite miRNAs to serve as tissue or serum biomarkers of Schistosoma mansoni infection.
Methods/principal Findings: We used Exiqon miRNA microarrays to profile miRNA expression in the livers of mice infected with S.
The sensing of nucleic acids by receptors of the innate immune system is a key component of antimicrobial immunity. RNA:DNA hybrids, as essential intracellular replication intermediates generated during infection, could therefore represent a class of previously uncharacterised pathogen-associated molecular patterns sensed by pattern recognition receptors. Here we establish that RNA:DNA hybrids containing viral-derived sequences efficiently induce pro-inflammatory cytokine and antiviral type I interferon production in dendritic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerebral malaria (CM) is the most severe syndrome associated with Plasmodium falciparum infections. Experimental evidence suggests that disease results from the sequestration of parasitized-red blood cells (pRBCs) together with inflammatory leukocytes within brain capillaries. We have previously shown that NK cells stimulate migration of CXCR3(+) T cells to the brain of Plasmodium berghei ANKA-infected mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection with schistosome helminths is associated with granulomatous inflammation that forms around parasite eggs trapped in host tissues. In severe cases, the resulting fibrosis can lead to organ failure, portal hypertension, and fatal bleeding. Murine studies identified IL-17 as a critical mediator of this immunopathology, and mouse strains that produce high levels of IL-17 in response to schistosome infection show increased mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the initiation of cellular immune responses during blood-stage malaria infection is essential for the development of an effective vaccine that improves upon the naturally acquired immune response and induces rapid and long-lasting protection against disease. Recent studies have identified the dendritic cell (DC) subtypes responsible for priming Plasmodium-specific T cells that mediate protection and/or pathology during blood-stage infection. Significant progress has also been made towards understanding DC recognition of Plasmodium parasites through engagement of TLR signalling pathways, as well as the potential for non-TLR ligands to mediate Plasmodium-induced suppression of DC antigen presentation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough dendritic cells (DCs) are adept initiators of CD4(+) T cell responses, their fundamental importance in this regard in Th2 settings remains to be demonstrated. We have used CD11c-diphtheria toxin (DTx) receptor mice to deplete CD11c(+) cells during the priming stage of the CD4(+) Th2 response against the parasitic helminth Schistosoma mansoni. DTx treatment significantly depleted CD11c(+) DCs from all tissues tested, with 70-80% efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerebral malaria is a severe complication of malaria. Sequestration of parasitized RBCs in brain microvasculature is associated with disease pathogenesis, but our understanding of this process is incomplete. In this study, we examined parasite tissue sequestration in an experimental model of cerebral malaria (ECM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite extensive evidence that Plasmodium species are capable of stimulating the immune system, the association of malaria with a higher incidence of other infectious diseases and reduced responses to vaccination against unrelated pathogens suggests the existence of immune suppression. Recently, we provided evidence that blood-stage Plasmodium berghei infection leads to suppression of MHC class I-restricted immunity to third party (non-malarial) antigens as a consequence of systemic DC activation. This earlier study did not, however, determine whether reactivity was also impaired to MHC class II-restricted third party antigens or to Plasmodium antigens themselves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral hundred malaria parasite proteins are exported beyond an encasing vacuole and into the cytosol of the host erythrocyte, a process that is central to the virulence and viability of the causative Plasmodium species. The trafficking machinery responsible for this export is unknown. Here we identify in Plasmodium falciparum a translocon of exported proteins (PTEX), which is located in the vacuole membrane.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlasmodium falciparum malaria causes 660 million clinical cases with over 2 million deaths each year. Acquired host immunity limits the clinical impact of malaria infection and provides protection against parasite replication. Experimental evidence indicates that cell-mediated immune responses also result in detrimental inflammation and contribute to severe disease induction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsights into the role of ankyrin-1 (ANK-1) in the formation and stabilization of the red cell cytoskeleton have come from studies on the nb/nb mice, which carry hypomorphic alleles of Ank-1. Here, we revise several paradigms established in the nb/nb mice through analysis of an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-induced Ank-1-null mouse. Mice homozygous for the Ank-1 mutation are profoundly anemic in utero and most die perinatally, indicating that Ank-1 plays a nonredundant role in erythroid development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough CD8(+) T cells do not contribute to protection against the blood stage of Plasmodium infection, there is mounting evidence that they are principal mediators of murine experimental cerebral malaria (ECM). At present, there is no direct evidence that the CD8(+) T cells mediating ECM are parasite-specific or, for that matter, whether parasite-specific CD8(+) T cells are generated in response to blood-stage infection. To resolve this and to define the cellular requirements for such priming, we generated transgenic P.
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