Luis I. Terrazas; Abhay R. Satoskar; Miriam Rodriguez-Sosa; Jorge Morales-Montor

“ The authors have discovered that in mice and human cells, the whole parasite or its antigens have a strong capacity to induce chronic Th2-type responses that are primarily characterized by high levels of Th2 cytokines, low proliferative responses in lymphocytes, an immature and LPS-tolerogenic profile in dendritic cells, the recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and, specially, alternatively activated macrophages. ”

“ As authors state, currently, there is a considerable controversy on the role of Treg cells during T. cruzi infection, the main point being whether these cells play a negative or a positive role. They found that the adoptive transfer of CD4+ CD25+ FOXP3+ T cells from rSSP4- (a recombinant T. cruzi amastigote derived protein) reduces cardiac inflammation and prolongs hosts’ survival but at the same time, increases blood parasitemia and parasite loads in the heart. ”

“ They found that female mice recruited higher number of macrophages to the peritoneal cavity than males. Furthermore, macrophages from infected animals showed increased expression of PDL2 and CD80 that was dependent from the host gender. Their findings suggest that macrophage recruitment at early time points during T. crassiceps infection is a possible mechanism that underlies the differential sex-associated susceptibility displayed by the mouse gender. ”

“ Authors showed that in vitro treatment of T. solium cultures with EpiBr reduced scolex evagination, growth, motility, and viability in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. Administration of EpiBr prior to infection with T. solium cysticerci in hamsters reduced the number and size of developed tapeworms in the intestine, compared with controls. These effects were associated with an increase in splenocyte proliferation in infected hamsters. ”

“ Currently, it is largely unknown if helminth parasites and their antigens modify host microRNAs expression. This let-7i downregulation in dendritic cells constitutes a novel feature of the modulatory activity that helminth-derived antigens exert on their host.
Macrophages are also critically involved in the interaction between T. crassiceps and the murine host immune system. Also, a strong gender-associated susceptibility to murine cysticercosis has been reported. ”