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

• Grant number: 13/26928-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2014
• End date: September 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Helminthology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Urbano Ferreira
• Grantee: Nathália Ferreira Lima
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 16/06970-0 - Mansonella ozzardi: the neglected New World filarial nematode that can modulate the immune response against concomitant infections, BE.EP.DR

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.

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)

DE OLIVEIRA, THAIS C.; RODRIGUES, PRISCILA T.; MENEZES, MARIA JOSE; GONCALVES-LOPES, RAQUEL M.; BASTOS, MELISSA S.; LIMA, NATHALIA F.; BARBOSA, SUSANA; GERBER, ALEXANDRA L.; DE MORAIS, GUILHERME LOSS; BERNA, LUISA; et al. Genome-wide diversity and differentiation in New World populations of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 11, n. 7, JUL 2017. (13/26928-0, 13/23770-6, 10/51835-7)

FONTOURA, PABLO S.; FINCO, BRUNA F.; LIMA, NATHALIA F.; DE CARVALHO, JR., JAQUES F.; VINETZ, JOSEPH M.; CASTRO, MARCIA C.; FERREIRA, MARCELO U.. Reactive Case Detection for Plasmodium vivax Malaria Elimination in Rural Amazonia. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, v. 10, n. 12, DEC 2016. (13/02764-8, 13/17259-7, 13/26928-0)

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)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

LIMA, Nathália Ferreira. Mansonella ozzardi: the neglected New World filarial nematode that can modulate the immune response.. 2017. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI) São Paulo.