DEACL - Departamento de Análises Clínicas
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Navegando DEACL - Departamento de Análises Clínicas por Autor "Afonso, Luís Carlos Crocco"
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Item Antigenic extracts of Leishmania braziliensis and Leishmania amazonensis associated with saponin partially protects BALB/c mice against Leishmania chagasi infection by suppressing IL-10 and IL-4 production.(2010) Grenfell, Rafaella Fortini Queiroz; Silva, Eduardo de Almeida Marques da; Testasicca, Miriam Conceição de Souza; Coelho, Eduardo Antônio Ferraz; Fernandes, Ana Paula Salles Moura; Afonso, Luís Carlos Crocco; Rezende, Simone AparecidaThis study evaluated two vaccine candidates for their effectiveness in protecting BALB/c mice against Leishma¬nia chagasi infection. These immunogenic preparations were composed of Leishmania amazonensis or Leishmania braziliensis antigenic extracts in association with saponin adjuvant. Mice were given three subcutaneous doses of one of these vaccine candidates weekly for three weeks and four weeks later challenged with promastigotes of L. chagasi by intravenous injection. We observed that both vaccine candidates induced a significant reduction in the parasite load of the liver, while the L. amazonensis antigenic extract also stimulated a reduction in spleen parasite load. This protection was associated with a suppression of both interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-4 cytokines by spleen cells in response to L. chagasi antigen. No change was detected in the production of IFN-γ. Our data show that these im-munogenic preparations reduce the type 2 immune response leading to the control of parasite replication.Item Extracellular nucleotide metabolism in Leishmania : influence of adenosine in the establishment of infection.(2008) Silva, Eduardo de Almeida Marques da; Oliveira, Jamile Camargos de; Figueiredo, Amanda Braga de; Lima Júnior, Djalma de Souza; Carneiro, Cláudia Martins; Fietto, Juliana Lopes Rangel; Afonso, Luís Carlos CroccoLeishmaniasis is a parasitic disease with a variety of clinical forms, which are related to the Leishmania species involved. In the murine model, Leishmania amazonensis causes chronic non-healing lesions in Leishmania braziliensis- or Leishmania major-resistant mouse strains. In this study, we investigated the involvement of the pathway of extracellular nucleotide hydrolysis, with special focus on the role of extracellular adenosine, in the establishment of Leishmania infection. Our results show that the more virulent parasitedL. Amazonensisdhydrolyzes higher amounts of ATP, ADP and AMP than the two other species, probably due to the higher expression of membrane NTPDase. Corroborating the idea that increased production of adenosine is important to lesion development and establishment of tissue parasitism, we observed that increased 50-nucleotidase activity in L. braziliensis or addition of adenosine at the moment of infection with this parasite resulted in an increase in lesion size and parasitism as well as a delay in lesion healing. Furthermore, inhibition of adenosine receptor A2B led to decreased lesion size and parasitism. Thus, our results suggest that the conversion of ATP, a molecule with pro-inflammatory activity, into adenosine, which possesses immunomodulatory properties, may contribute to the establishment of infection by Leishmania.Item Leishmania braziliensis : partial control of experimental infection by Interleukin-12 p40 deficient mice.(2004) Souza Neto, Sebastião Martins de; Carneiro, Cláudia Martins; Vieira, Leda Quercia; Afonso, Luís Carlos CroccoResistance to infection by Leishmania major has been associated with the development of a Th1 type response that is dependent on the presence of interleukin 12 (IL-12). In this work the involvement of this cytokine in the response to infection by L. braziliensis, a less virulent species in the mouse model, was evaluated. Our results show that while interferon (IFN-γ) deficient (-/-) mice inoculated L. braziliensis develop severe uncontrolled lesions, chronic lesions that remained under control up to 12 weeks of infection were observed in IL-12p40 -/- mice. IL 12p40 -/- mice had fewer parasites in their lesions than IFN-γ-/- mice. Lymph node cells from IL-12p40 -/- were capable of producing low but consistent levels of IFN-γ suggestive of its involvement in parasite control. Furthermore, as opposed to previous reports on L. major-infected animals, no switch to a Th2 response was observed in IL- 12p40 -/- infected with L. braziliensis.Item Low and high-dose intradermal infection with Leishmania major and Leishmania amazonensis in C57BL/6 mice.(2010) Côrtes, Denise Fonseca; Carneiro, Matheus Batista Heitor; Santos, Liliane Martins dos; Souza, Talita Correia de Oliveira; Maioli, Tatiani Uceli; Duz, Ana Luiza Cassin; Jorge, Maria Letícia Ramos; Afonso, Luís Carlos Crocco; Carneiro, Cláudia Martins; Vieira, Leda QuerciaA model of skin infection with Leishmania amazonensis with low doses of parasites is compared to infection with high doses of L. amazonensis and low and high doses of Leishmania major. C57BL/6 mice were infected with 103 or 106 parasites in the ear and the outcome of infection was assessed. The appearance of lesions in mice infected with 103 parasites was delayed compared to mice infected with 106 Leishmania and parasites were detectable at the infection site before lesions became apparent. Mice infected with L. amazonensis displayed persistent lesions, whereas infection with L. major spontaneously healed in all groups, although lymphocytes persisted at the site of infection after healing. Macrophages persisted only in L. amazonensis-infected mice. High-dose L. amazonensis-infected mice produced lower levels of IFN-γ and TNF than mice infected with L. major. No correlation between the persistence of parasites and IL-10 levels and the production of nitric oxide or urea by macrophages was found. We conclude that infection with low doses of L. amazonensis in the dermis changes the course of infection by delaying the appearance of lesions. However, low-dose infection does not change the outcomes of susceptibility and cytokine production described for subcutaneous infection with high numbers of parasites.Item Successful vaccination against Leishmania chagasi infection in BALB/c mice with freeze-thawed Leishmania antigen and Corynebacterium parvum.(2007) Vilela, Márcia de Carvalho; Gomes, Daniel Cláudio de Oliveira; Silva, Eduardo de Almeida Marques da; Serafim, Tiago Donatelli; Afonso, Luís Carlos Crocco; Rezende, Simone AparecidaThis study evaluated the potential of a Leishmania antigen vaccine in protecting BALB/c mice against Leishmania chagasi. Mice received two subcutaneous doses of L. amazonensis vaccine with Corynebacterium parvum and subsequent boost was done without adjuvant. One week later, mice were challenged with L. chagasi. We observed that this vaccine caused a significant reduction in parasite load in liver and spleen and induced a high production of IFN-_ and IL-4 by spleen cells from vaccinated mice in response to Leishmania antigen. Together, our data show that this vaccine is capable of inducing a Th1/Th2 response that is important to control parasite replication.Item The schistosomiasis spleenOME : unveiling the proteomic landscape of splenomegaly using label-free mass spectrometry.(2019) Cosenza Contreras, Miguel de Jesus; Castro, Renata Alves de Oliveira e; Mattei, Bruno; Campos, Jonatan Marques; Silva, Gustavo Gonçalves; Paiva, Nívia Carolina Nogueira de; Soares, Rodrigo Dian de Oliveira Aguiar; Carneiro, Cláudia Martins; Afonso, Luís Carlos Crocco; Borges, William de CastroSchistosomiasis is a neglected parasitic disease that affects millions of people worldwide and is caused by helminth parasites from the genus Schistosoma. When caused by S. mansoni, it is associated with the development of a hepatosplenic disease caused by an intense immune response to the important antigenic contribution of adult worms and to the presence of eggs trapped in liver tissue. Although the importance of the spleen for the establishment of immune pathology is widely accepted, it has received little attention in terms of the molecular mechanisms operating in response to the infection. Here, we interrogated the spleen proteome using a label-free shotgun approach for the potential discovery of molecular mechanisms associated to the peak of the acute phase of inflammation and the development of splenomegaly in the murine model. Over fifteen hundred proteins were identified in both infected and control individuals and 325 of those proteins were differentially expressed. Two hundred and forty-two proteins were found upregulated in infected individuals while 83 were downregulated. Functional enrichment analyses for differentially expressed proteins showed that most of them were categorized within pathways of innate and adaptive immunity, DNA replication, vesicle transport and catabolic metabolism. There was an important contribution of granulocyte proteins and antigen processing and presentation pathways were augmented, with the increased expression of MHC class II molecules but the negative regulation of cysteine and serine proteases. Several proteins related to RNA processing were upregulated, including splicing factors. We also found indications of metabolic reprogramming in spleen cells with downregulation of proteins related to mitochondrial metabolism. Ex-vivo imunophenotyping of spleen cells allowed us to attribute the higher abundance of MHC II detected by mass spectrometry to increased number of macrophages (F4/80+/MHC II+ cells) in the infected condition. We believe these findings add novel insights for the understanding of the immune mechanisms associated with the establishment of schistosomiasis and the processes of immune modulation implied in the host-parasite interactions.