Immunity to Protozoa

Immunity to Protozoa

Parasites with complex life cycles often stimulate both antibodyand cell-mediated defence mechanisms, whose effectiveness depends on the particular parasite and the stage of infection. Malaria, which is caused by different species of plasmodia, ranks amongst the most common and important parasitic diseases. Infection of humans is initiatedby thebite of an infectedmosquito, resulting in the inje...

Immunity to protozoa and worms

Legionella: From Protozoa to Humans

Pathogens that are able to enter and multiply within human cells are responsible for multiple diseases and millions of deaths worldwide. Thus, the challenge is to elucidate these pathogen-specific and cell biological mechanisms involved in intracellular growth and spread. Bacteria from the genus Legionella belong to this group of pathogens. They are environmental bacteria and ubiquitous in natu...

Induction of cell-mediated immunity during early stages of infection with intracellular protozoa.

Toxoplasma gondii and Trypanosoma cruzi are intracellular parasites which, as part of their life cycle, induce a potent cell-mediated immunity (CMI) maintained by Th1 lymphocytes and IFN-gamma. In both cases, induction of a strong CMI is thought to protect the host against rapid parasite multiplication and consequent pathology and lethality during the acute phase of infection. However, the para...

humoral immunity to human neoplasms

using complement fixation technique, serial serum samples from 15 patients undergoing surgical removal of malignant tumors were assayed for the presence of tumors antibodies against the cellular fractions of both normal and carcinomatous tissue. antibody responses against tumor associated antigens were detected in four cases. in all cases antibody activity was directed only against the supernat...