Punkosdy George A, Addiss David G, Lammie Patrick J
Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Infect Immun. 2003 Sep;71(9):5104-14. doi: 10.1128/IAI.71.9.5104-5114.2003.
Symbiotic Wolbachia organisms of filarial nematodes have received much attention as possible chemotherapy targets and disease-causing organisms. In order to further investigate the association between anti-Wolbachia immune responses and chronic filarial disease in humans, antibody responses to Wolbachia surface protein (WSP) were assayed in serum samples collected from 232 individuals living in Leogane, Haiti, an area where Wuchereria bancrofti infection is endemic, and from 67 North Americans with no history of lymphatic filariasis. As opposed to antifilarial antibody responses, which were largely influenced by the patient's infection status, the prevalence and levels of anti-WSP immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies among individuals with lymphedema or hydrocele were significantly greater than those in gender- and infection-matched individuals without disease. In at least one case, the anti-WSP IgG response was coincident with the onset of lymphedema development, and among anti-WSP-positive women with lymphedema, anti-WSP IgG levels were negatively correlated with the duration of lymphedema. The presence of anti-WSP IgG was also associated with the severity of inguinal adenopathy among men with hydrocele. In addition to the presence of anti-WSP antibodies among Haitians, 15 of 67 (22%) serum samples collected from individuals from North America, where filariasis is not endemic, were also positive for anti-WSP antibodies. In comparison to those from Haitians, anti-WSP antibodies from North Americans primarily recognized a distinct region of WSP located within the highly conserved second transmembrane domain. The results of this study demonstrate that anti-WSP antibody responses are associated with the presence of chronic filarial morbidity and not filarial infection status in humans and suggest that WSP should be further studied as a potential trigger for the development of filarial disease.
作为可能的化疗靶点和致病生物体，丝虫线虫的共生沃尔巴克氏体受到了广泛关注。为了进一步研究抗沃尔巴克氏体免疫反应与人类慢性丝虫病之间的关联，我们检测了从海地莱奥甘地区232名居民以及67名无淋巴丝虫病病史的北美人体内采集的血清样本中针对沃尔巴克氏体表面蛋白（WSP）的抗体反应。海地莱奥甘地区是班氏吴策线虫感染的流行地区。与主要受患者感染状态影响的抗丝虫抗体反应不同，淋巴水肿或鞘膜积液患者中抗WSP免疫球蛋白G（IgG）抗体的患病率和水平显著高于性别和感染情况匹配但无疾病的个体。至少在一个病例中，抗WSP IgG反应与淋巴水肿的发病同时出现，在患有淋巴水肿的抗WSP阳性女性中，抗WSP IgG水平与淋巴水肿的持续时间呈负相关。抗WSP IgG的存在也与患有鞘膜积液的男性腹股沟淋巴结病的严重程度相关。除了海地人中有抗WSP抗体外，从非丝虫病流行地区的北美个体采集的67份血清样本中有15份（22%）抗WSP抗体也呈阳性。与海地人相比，北美人的抗WSP抗体主要识别位于高度保守的第二个跨膜结构域内的WSP的一个独特区域。这项研究的结果表明，抗WSP抗体反应与人类慢性丝虫病的存在有关，而与丝虫感染状态无关，并表明WSP应作为丝虫病发展的潜在触发因素进行进一步研究。
