Cytokine responses to the anti-schistosome vaccine candidate antigen glutathione-S-transferase vary with host age and are boosted by praziquantel treatment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Improved helminth control is required to alleviate the global burden of schistosomiasis and schistosome-associated pathologies. Current control efforts rely on the anti-helminthic drug praziquantel (PZQ), which enhances immune responses to crude schistosome antigens but does not prevent re-infection. An anti-schistosome vaccine based on Schistosoma haematobium glutathione-S-transferase (GST) is currently in Phase III clinical trials, but little is known about the immune responses directed against this antigen in humans naturally exposed to schistosomes or how these responses change following PZQ treatment.

Methodology

Blood samples from inhabitants of a Schistosoma haematobium-endemic area were incubated for 48 hours with or without GST before (n = 195) and six we

SUBMITTER: Bourke CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4014416 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature