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Ribavirin up‐regulates IL‐12 p40 gene expression and restores IL‐12 levels in Leishmania ‐treated PBMCs
Author(s) -
CONTE E.,
MODICA A.,
CACOPARDO B.,
MESSINA L.,
NIGRO L.,
MESSINA A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3024.2005.00796.x
Subject(s) - ribavirin , phytohaemagglutinin , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , biology , immunology , immune system , leishmania donovani , antigen , leishmania , gene expression , virology , in vitro , gene , visceral leishmaniasis , leishmaniasis , virus , hepatitis c virus , biochemistry , parasite hosting , world wide web , computer science
SUMMARY Ribavirin, a nucleoside analogue that interferes with viral mRNA synthesis and inhibits the replication of RNA and DNA viruses, has been recently proposed as an effective immune response modulator. In the present report, we studied the effect of ribavirin on IL‐12 p40 gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy subjects. We also studied ribavirin effects on PBMCs activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and treated with Leishmania donovani antigens. We provide evidence that ribavirin was able to up‐regulate IL‐12 p40 gene expression and to restore levels of IL‐12 p40 gene expression and IL‐12 secretion in fully activated PBMCs that were strongly inhibited by L. donovani antigens. Because effective management of leishmanial disease is usually associated with a prevalent T‐helper 1 immune response with elevated production of IL‐12, our preliminary results may be of particular interest, provided that they will be confirmed by further in vitro and in vivo studies, when considering a possible use of ribavirin as adjuvant in severe leishmanial disease.