Mansonella ozzardi: a neglected filaria that may modulate the immune response to co-occurring infections

• Grant number: 13/12723-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2014
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Helminthology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Urbano Ferreira
• Grantee: Marcelo Urbano Ferreira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Esper Georges Kallás ; Karina Inacio Ladislau de Carvalho

Abstract

Human infections with the filarial parasite Mansonella ozzardi are common in areas of tropical and subtropical Central and South America and often coexist with other endemic tropical diseases, such as malaria. In the Amazonian Basin of Brazil, infections are typically asymptomatic; most of them will remain undiagnosed. These chronic, untreated filarial infections are potentially associated with a regulatory immune environment, dominated by IL-10-producing T-cells, which mediates the suppression of T-cell proliferation in response to filarial and non-related antigens. However, the potential impact of M. ozzardi infections on immune responses to other pathogens, such as Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium vivax, remains unknown. Here we aim to investigate whether human M. ozzardi infections induce the expansion of CD4+ T-lymphocyte populations that express molecules with immunoregulatory potential and whether these cell populations are able to inhibit T-cell proliferative responses ex-vivo to unrelated antigens and mitogens. We will also examine plasma levels of several inflammatory and regulatory cytokines and investigate the putative cellular sources of the major immunoregulatory cytokine IL-10 during M. ozzardi infections in naturally exposed subjects living in an endemic area of Amazonas State, Brazil. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LIMA, NATHALIA F.; AYBAR, CECILIA A. VEGGIANI; JURI, MARIA J. DANTUR; FERREIRA, MARCELO U.. Mansonella ozzardi: a neglected New World filarial nematode. PATHOGENS AND GLOBAL HEALTH, v. 110, n. 3, p. 97-107, 2016. (13/26928-0, 13/12723-7)

SINHA, AMIT; LI, ZHIRU; POOLE, CATHERINE B.; ETTWILLER, LAURENCE; LIMA, NATHALIA F.; FERREIRA, MARCELO U.; FOMBAD, FANNY F.; WANJI, SAMUEL; CARLOW, CLOTILDE K. S.. Multiple Lineages of Nematode-Wolbachia Symbiosis in Supergroup F and Convergent Loss of Bacterioferritin in Filarial Wolbachia. GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, v. 15, n. 5, p. 21-pg., 2023-05-05. (13/12723-7, 13/26928-0)

LIMA, NATHALIA F.; GONCALVES-LOPES, RAQUEL M.; KRUIZE, YVONNE C. M.; YAZDANBAKHSH, MARIA; FERREIRA, MARCELO U.. CD39 and immune regulation in a chronic helminth infection: The puzzling case of Mansonella ozzardi. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 12, n. 3, MAR 2018. (13/12723-7, 13/26928-0, 16/06970-0)

FERREIRA, MARCELO U.; CRAINEY, JAMES LEE; GOBBI, FEDERICO G.. The search for better treatment strategies for mansonellosis: an expert perspective. EXPERT OPINION ON PHARMACOTHERAPY, v. 24, n. 15, p. 8-pg., 2023-07-26. (13/12723-7)

FERREIRA, MARCELO U.; CRAINEY, JAMES LEE; LUZ, SERGIO L. B.. Mansonella ozzardi. Trends in Parasitology, v. 37, n. 1, p. 2-pg., 2021-01-01. (13/12723-7)