Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Singh, Aloukick K.
• Singh, Satyendra K.
• Singh, Amrita
• Gupta, Kamlesh K.
• Khatoon, Jahanarah
• Prasad, Amit
• Rai, Ravi P.
• Gupta, Rakesh K.
• Tripathi, Mukesh
• Husain, Nuzhat
• Prasad, Kashi N.

Titel

Immune response to Taenia solium cysticerci after anti-parasitic therapy

Ist Teil von

• International journal for parasitology, 2015-10, Vol.45 (12), p.749-759

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• [Display omitted] •Albendazole treatment was more effective than albendazole plus steroid.•Treatment with albendazole was not safe in the case of heavy infection in brain.•Albendazole therapy triggered a Th1 immune response.•Th2/Th1 immune response was associated with albendazole plus steroid responder cysts.•Th2 immune response was associated with albendazole plus steroid non-responder cysts. Albendazole is the drug of choice for Taenia solium infection. Concomitant administration of steroid has been advocated to avoid adverse reactions to albendazole therapy in neurocysticercosis. Some T. solium cysticerci (larvae) respond to albendazole therapy while others do not and the reasons remain unexplained. We hypothesise that the immune response differs between treatment responder and non-responder cysticerci and this may determine the outcome. Twenty swine naturally infected with T. solium were purchased from the market and the infection was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Swine were divided into two groups; swine in group 1 were treated with albendazole and those in group 2 were treated with albendazole plus steroid (prednisolone). All the animals underwent follow-up MRIs at 6 and 12weeks after start of therapy and were then sacrificed. Tissues surrounding the cysticerci were collected and studied for the expression of different cytokines by reverse transcriptase PCR and ELISA. Albendazole therapy was found to be more effective in parasite killing than albendazole plus steroid (94.11% versus 70.96%, P=0.011). Albendazole therapy provoked a pro-inflammatory, Th1 (IFN-γ) and pleiotropic (IL-6) cytokine response around the dead cysticerci. Despite a heavy parasite burden in the brain, all the pigs treated with albendazole plus steroid survived. In this group of animals, a mixed pro-inflammatory Th1, Th2 (IL-4) and regulatory cytokine (IL-10) response was associated with responder cysticerci. Further, Th2 and regulatory cytokine responses were associated with non-responder cysticerci.