ANALYSIS OF THE IMMUNE RESPONSE IN VISCERAL LEISHMANIASI

由于对导致疾病的免疫事件了解不足，在利什曼病中使用已定义抗原的疫苗接种不成功。我们正在寻找利什曼病小鼠模型的最新发现，以研究人体在体外和体内对感染的细胞反应。印度瓦拉纳西制定了一项临床方案，研究在内脏利什曼病患者的常规临床评估中获得的人骨髓和脾抽吸物。印度实验室的免疫生物学家Kalpana Pai博士访问了FDA实验室3个月，以启动印度人群的其他免疫研究。巴西维托利亚的研究小组正在研究遗传因素影响感染免疫反应的可能性，评估黑热病患者家庭细胞因子基因启动子区域的多态。在这里的实验室里，我们已经开始通过评估巨噬细胞和巨噬细胞样细胞中的IFNGamma受体激活途径来观察感染前鞭毛体和无鞭毛体的体外反应。

Vaccination using defined antigens has been unsuccessful in leishmaniasis due to an inadequate understanding of the immune events leading to disease. We are pursing recent findings in the mouse model of leishmaniasis to investigate the cellular response to infection in humans both in vitro and in vivo. A clinical protocol is in place in Varanasi, India to study human bone morrow and splenic aspirates obtained during routine clinical evaluation of patients with visceral leishmaniasis. Dr. Kalpana Pai, an Immunobiologist in the Indian Laboratory visited the FDA Laboratory for 3 months to initiate other immune studies in the Indian population. The group in Vitoria, Brazil is looking at the potential for genetic factors to influence the immune response to infection evaluating polymorphisms in cytokine gene promoter regions in families with kala- azar. In the Laboratory here we have begun to look at the in vitro response to infection with promastigotes and amastigotes by evaluating the IFNgamma receptor activation pathway in macrophages and macrophage-like cells.