Induction and maintenance of regulatory T cells and effector T cell hypo-responsiveness in chronic helminth infection

寄生虫在人类宿主体内存活数十年，它们通过关闭免疫反应来实现这一点。他们为此使用了许多技巧，我们研究的目的是确定他们的策略，以便制定对策。如果免疫反应过于强烈，在清除感染时可能会造成损害。为了防止这种情况，一种被称为调节性T细胞的特殊免疫细胞具有监管免疫反应的功能。我们发现，蠕虫能够破坏这种细胞，利用它来达到自己的目的，从而抑制原本会杀死它们的免疫反应。我们现在正在研究它们破坏细胞的机制。了解蠕虫如何关闭免疫力在两个层面上很重要；(1)为了接种疫苗或治疗感染，你需要能够重新启动免疫力；(2)寄生虫用来关闭免疫力的策略可以应用于治疗由免疫系统引起的疾病，如过敏，或防止器官移植的排斥反应。

Parasitic worms live within their human hosts for decades, and they do this by turning off the immune response. They use numerous tricks to this end, and the goal of our research is to identify their ploys in order to develop countermeasures. If an immune response is too vigorous it can cause damage while clearing the infection. To prevent this, one particular type of immune cell called a Regulatory T cell has the function of policing immune responses. We have found that worms are able to subvert this cell, using it to their own ends to dampen immune responses that would otherwise kill them. We are now investigating the mechanisms by which they subvert this cell. Understanding how worms turn off immunity is important at two levels; (1) to vaccinate or treat infection you need to be able to turn immunity back on, (2) strategies used by the parasite to switch off immunity can be applied to treat diseases caused by the immune system such as allergies, or to prevent rejection of organ transplants.