Frölich Sonja, Entzeroth Rolf, Wallach Michael
The ithree Institute, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
J Parasitol Res. 2012;2012:852591. doi: 10.1155/2012/852591. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
Members of the phylum Apicomplexa, which includes the species Plasmodium, Eimeria, Toxoplasma, and Babesia amongst others, are the most successful intracellular pathogens known to humankind. The widespread acquisition of antimicrobial resistance to most drugs used to date has sparked a great deal of research and commercial interest in the development of vaccines as alternative control strategies. A few antigens from the asexual and sexual stages of apicomplexan development have been identified and their genes characterised; however, the fine cellular and molecular details of the effector mechanisms crucial for parasite inhibition and stimulation of protective immunity are still not entirely understood. This paper provides an overview of what is currently known about the protective immune response against the various types of apicomplexan parasites and focuses mainly on the similarities of these pathogens and their host interaction. Finally, the evolutionary relationships of these parasites and their hosts, as well as the modulation of immune functions that are critical in determining the outcome of the infection by these pathogenic organisms, are discussed.
顶复门的成员，包括疟原虫、艾美球虫、弓形虫和巴贝斯虫等物种，是人类已知的最成功的细胞内病原体。迄今为止，对大多数使用的药物广泛产生的抗药性引发了大量关于开发疫苗作为替代控制策略的研究和商业兴趣。已经鉴定了来自顶复门发育无性和有性阶段的一些抗原并对其基因进行了表征；然而，对于寄生虫抑制和保护性免疫刺激至关重要的效应机制的精细细胞和分子细节仍未完全了解。本文概述了目前已知的针对各种顶复门寄生虫的保护性免疫反应，并主要关注这些病原体及其与宿主相互作用的相似性。最后，讨论了这些寄生虫与其宿主的进化关系，以及在确定这些致病生物感染结果中起关键作用的免疫功能调节。
