Evaluation of the effect of IGF-I in murine macrophages infected in vitro by Leishmania (L.) amazonensis

• Grant number: 11/22517-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Applied Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Hiro Goto
• Grantee: Anderson Guilherme dos Santos Barssotti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo (IMT). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Leishmania infection is the participation of specific and nonspecific immune response in disease progression. Many growth factors have effect on this parasite-host interaction as the factor of insulin-like growth I (IGF-I). The work done by the group of Prof. Hiro Goto show that IGF-I promotes the proliferation of extrinsic and progression of parasite infection, with effect on nitric oxide production and activation of arginase in macrophages and the parasite. However, IGF-I is present constitutively in macrophages. This work aims to study the effect of constitutive IGF-I in murine macrophages infected with Leishmania (L.) amazonensis. We propose to evaluate the expression of IGF-I and analyze the effect of inhibition of its expression in parasitism in murine macrophages infected with Leishmania (L.) amazonensis. We are conducting a similar study with L. (L.) major, but knowing that there are marked differences in biological behavior of different species of Leishmania, we propose this study with L. (L.) amazonensis. The results obtained from infection with Leishmania (L.) amazonensis are of paramount importance to compare the effect of IGF-I with the results found in previous experiments with L. major and contribute to the understanding of behavioral differences in infections by different species of Leishmania.(AU)