Chronic Intestinal Helminth Infections Are Associated with Immune Hyporesponsiveness and Induction of a Regulatory Network

Overview

Journal Infect Immun

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2010 Apr 21

PMID 20404082

Citations 82

Authors

Camila Alexandrina Figueiredo

Mauricio L Barreto

Laura C Rodrigues

Philip J Cooper

Nivea Bispo Silva

Leila D Amorim

Neuza Maria Alcantara-Neves

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Helminth infections have been associated with protection against allergy and autoimmune diseases. We investigated the effects of chronic infections with Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura (measured twice over a 5-year period) on cytokine and antibody responses. We collected blood from 1,060 children aged 4 to 11 years living in a poor urban area of Brazil and measured Th1 (gamma interferon [IFN-gamma]) and Th2 (interleukin-5 [IL-5] and IL-13) cytokines and the regulatory cytokine IL-10 in unstimulated and stimulated (with mitogen or A. lumbricoides antigens) cultures of peripheral blood leukocytes and levels of total IgE and anti-A. lumbricoides IgG4 and IgE in serum. Intestinal helminth infections were associated with an increased proportion of children producing IL-5 in response to A. lumbricoides and producing IL-10 spontaneously, especially among coinfected and chronically infected children. Helminth infections were associated with a generalized suppression of cytokine responses to mitogen. Levels of total IgE and anti-A. lumbricoides IgG4 and IgE were especially elevated in chronically infected children. In conclusion, intestinal helminth infections were associated with a typical Th2 immune response profile and with the induction of immune hyporesponsiveness that was associated with greater frequencies of the production of spontaneous IL-10.

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