ABSTRACT
Cysticercosis and hydatidosis are parasitic diseases caused by larvae of Taenia solium and Echinococcus sp., respectively. Parasitic diseases are useful models for in vivo studies of effector functions of T helper cell subsets 1 and 2, (called Th1 and Th2 on the basis of the pattern of cytokines they produce). The polarization to Th1 or Th2 is related to protective or permissive immune responses in these diseases. The role of Th1 and Th2 lymphocytes in tissue cestodiasis (cysticercosis and hydatidosis) has been studied in experimentally infected mice and in human patients; study results suggest that in individuals with cysticercosis or hydatidosis, the cellular immune response is polarized to Th2, while individuals in whom parasites are killed or their growth is limited, have an immune cellular response that is polarized towards Th1.
Subject(s)
Animals , Humans , Mice , Cysticercosis , Echinococcosis , Th1 Cells/physiology , /physiology , Immunity, Cellular , Mice, Inbred Strains , Disease Models, AnimalABSTRACT
Tradicional systems for developing drugs and vaccines are failing spectaculary to deliver the goods in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). The disease that afflicts the developing world defies the imagination in its scale. One third of the world's population - 2 billion people - is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and 16 million have active TB. Shockingly, TB hit an all-time high in 1999 with 8 million new cases - 95 per cent of them in developing countries - and 2 million deaths. The disease is spreading rapidly throughout the world. The toll is set to rise; AIDS activates the dormant form of the disease, while multidrug resistance is spreading across the planet. The last new drug for TB was introduced over thirty years ago and industry has been reluctant to invest in discovering new families of drugs because of the financial risks in investing in products destined largely for developing country markets. If global health is left to market forces, historians will remember this era as one in which humanity stood idly by while half the planet languished in sickness. Fortunately some researchers have realized this, and are driving forward new models for TB therapy and vaccine discovery. One of the latest sign of this trend is the development of a DNA vaccine for the prevention and treatment of TB by our research group. Over the last few years, some of our experiments in wich mycobacterial antigens were presented to the immune system, as of they were viral antigens (DNA vaccine), have had a significant impact on our understanding of protective immunity against tuberculosis. They also markedly enhanced the prospects for new vaccines. We now know that individual mycobacterial-protein antigens expressed from DNA-vaccine constructs can confer protection equal to that from live BCG vaccine in mice. A critical determinant of the outcome of immunization appears to be the degree to which antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells are generated by the immune response. We have demonstrated that DNA vaccination is an affective way of establishing long lasting cytotoxic T-cell memory and protection against tuberculosis. Moreover, our new preclinical work shows that DNA vaccines, initially designed to prevent infection, can also have a dramatic therapeutic action. In infected mice, the immune response can be caused to switch from one that is relatively inefficient and gives bacterial stasis to one that kills the bacteria, eliminating...