Research paperSystemic and compartmentalized immune response in canine visceral leishmaniasis
Section snippets
Impact of canine control on the epidemiology from canine and human visceral leishmaniasis
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the most important emerging diseases with high prevalence in Latin American countries (Tesh, 1995). VL and canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) are mainly caused by Leishmania (L.) chagasi (Syn = L. infantum) in South America and Europe (Mauricio et al., 2000). Peri-domestic sand flies acquire the etiological agent by feeding on infected wild/domestic reservoirs and transmit it, causing severe disease in humans (Tesh, 1995, WHO, 2000). Nowadays, VL is
Clinical and biochemical/hematological biomarkers of progression in CVL
Canine visceral leishmaniasis manifests itself as a broad clinical spectrum ranging from asymptomatic infection to patent severe disease, which mostly culminates in death (Reis et al., 2006b). According to Mancianti et al. (1988), asymptomatic dogs (AD) do not show visible clinical signs because they are apparently healthy animals (Fig. 1A), whereas oligosymptomatic dogs (OD) present some signs such as cutaneous ulcerations, frequently observed on the tip of the ears and on the periorbital
Tissues parasite load and clinical progression in CVL
Evaluation of parasite load by “leishman donovan units” (LDU), number of Leishmania amastigote by 1,000 nucleated cells (Stauber, 1955 modified by Reis et al., 2006a), and anti-Leishmania detection by immunohistochemistry are important parasitological tools to verify parasite density in different lymphoid compartments (Tafuri et al., 2001, Tafuri et al., 2004, Sanchez et al., 2004, Reis et al., 2006a, Reis et al., 2006b, Reis et al., 2006c, Giunchetti et al., 2006, Giunchetti et al., 2008a,
Systemic immunological biomarkers of clinical progression in CVL
In the last decade, various research groups have concentrated efforts studying immunopathology of dogs naturally and experimentally infected by L. chagasi/L. infantum (Cabral et al., 1992, Martinez-Moreno et al., 1993, Martinez-Moreno et al., 1995, Pinelli et al., 1994, Pinelli et al., 1995, Pinelli et al., 1999a, Pinelli et al., 1999b, Brandonisio et al., 1996, Bourdoiseau et al., 1997, Nieto et al., 1999, Alvar et al., 2004, Tafuri et al., 2004, Solano-Gallego et al., 2004, Solano-Gallego et
Compartmentalized immune response in different lymphoid organs in CVL
Analysis of the immune response in different compartments during chronic infection is a useful new scientific strategy for the study of the immune response in parasitic/infectious diseases. This approach allows simultaneous investigation of the immunological events observed in the peripheral blood and may indicate whether they are representative of those occurring in the lymphoid tissues (Teixeira-Carvalho et al., 2002).
Although CVL is known to be a severe systemic disease, there are a few
Conclusion and new challenges
Our findings highlight the complexity of cellular immunological events related to natural infection from dogs by L. chagasi, correlating major peripheral blood phenotypic markers with clinical status and tissues parasite density. Our data suggest that the sustained T cell compartment (both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) observed in AD and LP groups may be resultant from the high activity of the host immune system to perform antigen presentation and to remove parasites from affected sites. Lower
Conflict of interest
None.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their appreciation for the hard work carried out by the kennel staff of the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto and Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais for their special dedication during the execution of this project. We also thank the people from Fundação Nacional da Saúde, Ministério da Saúde, Distrito Regional de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, for their special dedication to this work. The authors are also grateful for the use of the facilities at CEBIO,
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