Filarial parasites develop faster and reproduce earlier in response to host immune effectors that determine filarial life expectancy.

ABSTRACT: Humans and other mammals mount vigorous immune assaults against helminth parasites, yet there are intriguing reports that the immune response can enhance rather than impair parasite development. It has been hypothesized that helminths, like many free-living organisms, should optimize their development and reproduction in response to cues predicting future life expectancy. However, immune-dependent development by helminth parasites has so far eluded such evolutionary explanation. By manipulating various arms of the immune response of experimental hosts, we show that filarial nematodes, the parasites responsible for debilitating diseases in humans like river blindness and elephantiasis, accelerate their development in response to the IL-5 driven eosinophilia they encounter when infecting a h

SUBMITTER: Babayan SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2957396 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature