Human Infection with Ascaris lumbricoides Is Associated with Suppression of the Interleukin-2 Response to Recombinant Cholera Toxin B Subunit following …

PJ Cooper, M Chico, C Sandoval, I Espinel… - Infection and …, 2001 - Am Soc Microbiol
PJ Cooper, M Chico, C Sandoval, I Espinel, A Guevara, MM Levine, GE Griffin, TB Nutman
Infection and immunity, 2001Am Soc Microbiol
To investigate the potential immunomodulatory effects of concurrent ascariasis on the
cytokine response to a live oral vaccine, we measured cytokine responses to cholera toxin B
subunit (CT-B) following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR in
Ascaris lumbricoides-infected subjects randomized in a double-blind study to receive two
doses of either albendazole or placebo prior to vaccination and in a group of healthy US
controls. Postvaccination cytokine responses to CT-B were characterized by transient …
Abstract
To investigate the potential immunomodulatory effects of concurrent ascariasis on the cytokine response to a live oral vaccine, we measured cytokine responses to cholera toxin B subunit (CT-B) following vaccination with the live oral cholera vaccine CVD 103-HgR inAscaris lumbricoides-infected subjects randomized in a double-blind study to receive two doses of either albendazole or placebo prior to vaccination and in a group of healthy U.S. controls. Postvaccination cytokine responses to CT-B were characterized by transient increases in the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2;P = 0.02) and gamma interferon (IFN-γ;P = 0.001) in the three study groups combined; however, postvaccination increases in IFN-γ were significant only in the albendazole-treated A. lumbricoides infection group (P = 0.008). Postvaccination levels of IL-2 were significantly greater in the albendazole-treated group compared with the placebo group (P = 0.03). No changes in levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines in response to control ascaris antigens were observed over the same period. These findings indicate that vaccination with CVD 103-HgR is associated with a Th1 cytokine response (IL-2 and IFN-γ) to CT-B, that infection with A. lumbricoidesdiminishes the magnitude of this response, and that albendazole treatment prior to vaccination was able to partially reverse the deficit in IL-2. The potential modulation of the immune response to oral vaccines by geohelminth parasites has important implications for the design of vaccination campaigns in geohelminth-endemic areas.
American Society for Microbiology