Immune respones against Trypanosoma cruzi infection by oral route in cynomolgus macaques ( Macaca fascicularis ) Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract American Trypanosomiasis is an important neglected reemerging tropical parasitism, infecting about 8 million people worldwide. Its agent, Trypanosoma cruzi, exhibits multiple mechanisms to evade the host immune response and infect host cells. An important immune evasion strategy of T. cruzi infective stages is its capacity to inhibit the complement system activation on the parasite surface, avoiding opsonizing, immune stimulating and lytic effects. Eight male M. fascicularis between 8 and 10 years of age of Chinese origin were infected through oral administration of T. cruzi-infected triatomine bugs and followed over 6 weeks. The purpose of this study was to define cellular immunological responses in T. Cruzi challenged M. fascicularis. We measured immunofluorescent staining and multifunctional T. cruzi antigen specific T-cell responses in experimental infected M. fascicularis. Significant increases in the CD4+ T-cell population and polyfunctional T cell responses were observed in all experimental-infected animals compared with the uninfected time points. We observed a decrease in absolute number of lymphocytes, T cells and T cell subsets, in early phase of infection but recovered in later period. T. cruzi antigen specific IFN-g and IL-12p40 ELISPOT showed no significant infection specific responses during the study period. Circulating cytokines measurement in plasma revealed a significant increase IFN-g and IL-1ra during infection period. In conclusion, our present findings provide the first evidence demonstrating the Trypanosoma cruzi infection by oral route.

published proceedings

  • The Journal of Immunology

author list (cited authors)

  • Nehete, P. N., Chitta, S., Nehete, B. P., Abee, C. R., Hamer, S. A., Hodo, C. L., & Wilkerson, G. K.

complete list of authors

  • Nehete, Pramod N||Chitta, Sriram||Nehete, Bharti P||Abee, Christian R||Hamer, Sarah A||Hodo, Carolyn L||Wilkerson, Gregory K

publication date

  • May 2020