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Impaired Balance of Interleukin‐4 and Interferon‐y Production in Infections with Schistosoma mansoni and Intestinal Nematodes
Author(s) -
ZWINGENBERGER K.,
HOHMANN A.,
BRITO M. CARDOSO,
RITTER M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1991.tb01543.x
Subject(s) - praziquantel , schistosoma mansoni , schistosomiasis , biology , helminthiasis , immunology , mebendazole , anthelmintic , trematoda , helminths , medicine , ecology
In chronic infection with Schistosoma mansoni, IL‐4 and IFN‐γ are co‐modulated in opposite directions. This was shown when testing sera and cell culture supernatants from .11 Brazilian patients with schistosomiasis before, and three months after treatment with praziquantel. Thorough examinations were undertaken to account for polyparasitism with intestinal nematode infections involving tissue migrating larval stages that may induce analogous changes. Controls free of S. mansoni included a group (n = 17) matching the schistosomiasis patients’parasitation by intestinal nematodes and a group (n= 16) free of helminths other than T. trichiura. Serum lL‐4 was >30 pg/ml in 81% of schistosomiasis patients but in only 33 and 25%. respectively, of controls with and without intestinal nematodes. IL‐4 data correlated inversely with the mitogen‐induced if N‐y synthesis. Generation of IL‐4 in response to phorbol esters was related to the intensity of infection by schistosomes and intestinal nematodes. The parasitological status three months after therapy with cither praziquantel or mebendazole revealed a dichotomy: whereas the ratio of IFN‐7 lo IL‐4 generated in vitro was identical in uninfected controls and in patients who cleared the parasites, failure to eliminate the parasites was associated with lower IFN‐v/IL‐4 ratios generated in vitro.