Mitchell G F
Immunoparasitology Unit, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Ann Acad Med Singap. 1988 Apr;17(2):177-81.
Immunoparasitology--the study of the immunology of host-parasite relationships--can post some notable research successes over the past decade. Progress towards prophylactic molecularly-defined vaccines against human parasitic diseases such as falciparum malaria, schistosomiasis mansoni and cutaneous leishmaniasis, as well as economically-important veterinary parasites, has been good. However, new vaccines are not coming as easily as might be hoped mainly because of several deficiencies in knowledge on the immunology of host-parasite relationships and the unknown relevance of well-characterized model systems to real-life parasitic diseases. In some models, the immunology of resistance and the immunology of disease are understood in broad outline. The availability of isolated antigens and their epitopes has improved quantitation of host immune responses to various life cycle stages of parasites and enabled vaccination efficacy or diagnostic potential to be assessed. One of several major challenges facing the immunoparasitologist interested in vaccine development is overcoming genetically-based unresponsiveness to "oligoepitope", defined-antigen vaccines particularly at the level of helper TH and cytotoxic (Tc) T cells.
免疫寄生虫学——研究宿主与寄生虫关系的免疫学——在过去十年中取得了一些显著的研究成果。在开发针对人类寄生虫病（如恶性疟疾、曼氏血吸虫病和皮肤利什曼病）以及具有重要经济意义的兽医寄生虫的预防性分子定义疫苗方面取得了良好进展。然而，新疫苗的研发并不像人们期望的那么容易，主要是因为在宿主与寄生虫关系的免疫学知识方面存在一些不足，以及特征明确的模型系统与实际寄生虫病的相关性尚不清楚。在一些模型中，对抵抗的免疫学和疾病的免疫学有了大致的了解。分离抗原及其表位的可用性提高了对宿主针对寄生虫不同生命周期阶段的免疫反应的定量，并能够评估疫苗接种效果或诊断潜力。对疫苗开发感兴趣的免疫寄生虫学家面临的几个主要挑战之一是克服对“寡表位”、定义抗原疫苗基于基因的无反应性，特别是在辅助性TH细胞和细胞毒性（Tc）T细胞水平上。
