Regulation of T cell responses during chronic infection by Toxoplasma gondii

描述（由申请方提供）：弓形虫是一种细胞内原生动物寄生虫，是弓形虫病的病原体。小鼠弓形虫感染为了解食源性感染和脑慢性感染提供了极好的实验模型。该项目的总体目标是通过跟踪大脑中的寄生虫和免疫细胞，更深入地了解哺乳动物免疫系统如何对慢性弓形虫感染作出反应。具体而言，我们建议检查T细胞与寄生虫和入侵的宿主细胞的相互作用如何在进展与控制慢性感染（目标1），研究区分保护性CD8 T细胞反应与非保护性T细胞反应的关键特征（目标2），并研究调节性T细胞在调节T细胞效应子反应中的作用（目标3）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan parasite that is the causative agent of Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasma infection in mice provides an excellent experimental model for understanding food borne infections and chronic infections of the brain. The overall goal of this project is to gain a deeper understanding of how the mammalian immune system responds to chronic Toxoplasma infection by tracking parasites and immune cells in the brain. Specifically, we propose to examine how T cell interactions with parasites and invaded host cells changes during progressing versus controlled chronic infection (Aim 1), to investigate the key features that distinguish a protective CD8 T cell response from a non-protective one (Aim 2), and to investigate the role of regulatory T cells in modulating T cell effectors responses (Aim 3).