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Immune response of mice with alveolar echinococcosis to therapy with transfer factor, alone and in combination with albendazole

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Abstract

The effect of dialysable leucocyte extract (transfer factor TF) on immune response of mice infected with Echinococcus multilocularis and treated with albendazole (ABZ) was observed. TF administration increased the parasite-suppressed proliferative response of T and B lymphocytes of infected mice from weeks 8 to 12 or 14 post infection (p.i.), respectively, with the most stimulative effect after TF+ABZ therapy. The CD4 T cell presence in the spleen of infected mice with TF or TF+ABZ therapy was increased from weeks 6 to 12 or 14 p.i., respectively. The production of IFN-γ (Th1 cytokine) after TF or TF+ABZ therapy was significantly higher from weeks 6 to 12 p.i., and during this time, the significantly inhibited IL-5 synthesis (Th2 cytokine) was detected, particularly after TF+ABZ therapy. The superoxide anion (O −2 ) production in peritoneal macrophages of infected mice treated with TF or TF+ABZ was stimulated from weeks 8 to 18 p.i. The immunomodulative effect of TF reduced the growth of larval cysts till week 14 p.i. with a comparable intensity to the anthelmintic drug ABZ. Combined therapy TF+ABZ resulted in the greatest parasite restriction and reduced the cyst development till the end of the experiment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under contract no. APVV-51-027605, by the Slovak VEGA agency, grant no. 2/7186/27 and by the Slovak-Italian Science and Technology Cooperation, project no. SK-IT-0046-08. The experimental protocols complied with the current Slovak ethic law.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Parasitological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova 3, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Emília Dvorožňáková & Jarmila Porubcová

  2. Institute of Pathological Anatomy, University of Veterinary Medicine, Komenského 73, 041 81, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Zuzana Ševčíková

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  1. Emília Dvorožňáková
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  2. Jarmila Porubcová
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  3. Zuzana Ševčíková
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Correspondence to Emília Dvorožňáková.

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Dvorožňáková, E., Porubcová, J. & Ševčíková, Z. Immune response of mice with alveolar echinococcosis to therapy with transfer factor, alone and in combination with albendazole. Parasitol Res 105, 1067–1076 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1520-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1520-z

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