Infection with a helminth parasite prevents experimental colitis via a macrophage-mediated mechanism.

Macrophage-Mediated Mechanism Experimental Colitis via a Infection with a Helminth Parasite Prevents

Concurrent infection with an intestinal helminth parasite impairs host resistance to enteric Citrobacter rodentium and enhances Citrobacter-induced colitis in mice.

Infections with intestinal helminth and bacterial pathogens, such as enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, continue to be a major global health threat for children. To test the hypothesis that intestinal helminth infection may be a risk factor for enteric bacterial infection, a murine model was established by using the intestinal helminth Heligomosomoides polygyrus. To analyze the modulatory effec...

Antibodies Trap Tissue Migrating Helminth Larvae and Prevent Tissue Damage by Driving IL-4Rα-Independent Alternative Differentiation of Macrophages

Approximately one-third of the world's population suffers from chronic helminth infections with no effective vaccines currently available. Antibodies and alternatively activated macrophages (AAM) form crucial components of protective immunity against challenge infections with intestinal helminths. However, the mechanisms by which antibodies target these large multi-cellular parasites remain obs...

Alternatively activated macrophages in intestinal helminth infection: effects on concurrent bacterial colitis.

The distribution of several pathogenic helminth infections coincides geographically with many devastating microbial diseases, including enteric bacterial infections. To dissect the mechanisms by which helminths modulate the host's response to enteric bacteria and bacteria-mediated intestinal inflammation, we have recently established a coinfection model and shown that coinfection with the helmi...

Helminth infection impairs autophagy-mediated killing of bacterial enteropathogens by macrophages.

Autophagy is an important mechanism used by macrophages to kill intracellular pathogens. The results reported in this study demonstrate that autophagy is also involved in the macrophage killing of the extracellular enteropathogen Citrobacter rodentium after phagocytosis. The process was significantly impaired in macrophages isolated from mice chronically infected with the helminth parasite Heli...