Garza Armandina, Weinstock Joel, Robinson Prema
Department of Medicine (Section of Infectious Diseases), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
J Parasitol. 2008 Dec;94(6):1253-8. doi: 10.1645/GE-1481.1.
Neurocysticercosis, caused by the cestode Taenia solium, is the most common parasitic infection of the human central nervous system that leads to seizures. Taenia crassiceps cysticercosis in mice is an experimental model for Taenia solium cysticercosis. Similar to the human infection, live parasites cause little or no granulomatous inflammation. Dying parasites initiate a granulomatous reaction. The neuropeptide, substance P (SP), stimulates T-helper (TH) 1 cytokine production. In the current studies, we determined whether absence of SP/SP receptor circuitry in the SP-precursor, preprotachykinin, knockout or SP-receptor, neurokinin (NK) 1, knockout mice affected granuloma cytokine production. We hence compared the levels of Th1 cytokines interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-gamma, and levels of Th2/immunoregulatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-10, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in T. crassiceps-induced granulomas derived from infected C57BL/6 wild type (WT) versus SP-precursor knockout and NK1 knockout mice. We found that mean levels of IL-2, IFN-gamma, IL-4, and IL-10 in infected WT-derived granulomas were significantly higher than those of granulomas derived from infected SP-precursor knockout or the NK1 receptor (NKIR)knockout mice. Levels of Th2/immunoregulatory cytokines, IL-4 and IL-10 were higher in early stage granulomas (histologically-staged on basis of evidence of parasite remnants) versus late stage granulomas (no parasite-remnants) of both knockouts, whereas the reverse was noted in WT-derived granulomas. These study established that the absence of an SP/SP receptor circuitry in the SP precursor knockout mice or NK1 receptor knockout mice led to an inhibited cytokine response.
由绦虫猪带绦虫引起的神经囊尾蚴病是导致癫痫发作的人类中枢神经系统最常见的寄生虫感染。小鼠的肥胖带绦虫囊尾蚴病是猪带绦虫囊尾蚴病的实验模型。与人类感染相似,活寄生虫引起很少或没有肉芽肿性炎症。濒死的寄生虫引发肉芽肿反应。神经肽P物质(SP)刺激辅助性T细胞(TH)1细胞因子的产生。在当前的研究中,我们确定了在SP前体速激肽原基因敲除小鼠或SP受体神经激肽(NK)1基因敲除小鼠中,SP/SP受体通路的缺失是否会影响肉芽肿细胞因子的产生。因此,我们通过酶联免疫吸附测定法,比较了在肥胖带绦虫诱导的肉芽肿中,来源于感染的C57BL/6野生型(WT)小鼠与SP前体基因敲除小鼠和NK1基因敲除小鼠的Th1细胞因子白细胞介素(IL)-2和干扰素(IFN)-γ的水平,以及Th2/免疫调节细胞因子IL-4和IL-10的水平。我们发现,感染的WT来源的肉芽肿中IL-2、IFN-γ、IL-4和IL-10的平均水平显著高于感染的SP前体基因敲除小鼠或NK1受体(NKIR)基因敲除小鼠来源的肉芽肿。在两种基因敲除小鼠的早期肉芽肿(根据寄生虫残余证据进行组织学分期)中,Th2/免疫调节细胞因子IL-4和IL-10的水平高于晚期肉芽肿(无寄生虫残余),而在WT来源的肉芽肿中则观察到相反的情况。这些研究表明,SP前体基因敲除小鼠或NK1受体基因敲除小鼠中SP/SP受体通路的缺失导致细胞因子反应受到抑制。