Coccidioides is a fungal pathogen of humans which can cause a life-threatening respiratory disease in immunocompetent individuals. Recurrent epidemics of coccidioidal infections in Southwestern United States has raised the specter of awareness of this soil-borne microbe, particularly among residents of Arizona and Southern California, and has galvanized research efforts to develop a human vaccine against coccidioidomycosis. In this review, we discuss the rationale for such a vaccine, examine the features of host innate and acquired immune response to Coccidioides infection, describe strategies used to identify and evaluate vaccine candidates, and provide an update on progress toward development of a vaccine against this endemic pathogen. 相似文献
The biologically active substance P (SP) N-terminal metabolite SP1–7 has been reported to modulate several neural processes such as learning, locomotor activity and reaction to opioid withdrawal. Although all these processes are believed to be associated with dopaminergic transmission no evidence of an interaction between SP1–7 and dopamine in the case of morphine withdrawal has so far been reported. Therefore, in this work we applied in vivo microdialysis to investigate the effect of SP1–7 injection into the ventral tegmental area on dopamine release in nucleus accumbens of male rats during naloxone precipitated morphine withdrawal. The result showed that the heptapeptide enhances dopamine release and also elevates the level of the dopamine metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in this brain area. It was suggested that the observed action of the SP fragment on the dopamine system represents the underlying mechanism for a previously observed ability of SP1–7 to counteract the aversion response to morphine withdrawal. 相似文献
Background: Despite years of research, the treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI) remains a significant challenge. Animal studies presented causal links between elevated regulatory T cell (Treg) response and better prognosis in AKI. Previous studies in mice and humans showed that TIM-3+ Treg cells were more potent than TIM-3- Treg cells. In this study, we investigated the role of TIM-3 in Treg in AKI patients.
Methods: Peripheral blood from AKI patients and healthy controls were gathered, and TIM-3+ Treg subset was examined.
Results: Compared to healthy controls, the AKI patients presented a significant upregulation in the frequency of circulating CD4+CD25+ T cells; however, the majority of this increase was from the CD4+CD25+TIM-3- subset, and the frequency of CD4+CD25+TIM-3+ T cells was downregulated in AKI patients. In both healthy controls and AKI patients, the CD4+CD25+TIM-3+ T cells expressed higher levels of Foxp3, and were more potent at expressing LFA-1, LAG-3, CTLA-4, IL-10 and TGF-β. In addition, the CD4+CD25+TIM-3+ T cells from both healthy controls and AKI patients presented higher capacity to suppress CD4+CD25- T cell proliferation than the CD4+CD25+TIM-3- T cells. Interestingly, the total CD4+CD25+ T cells from AKI patients presented significantly lower inhibitory capacity than those from healthy controls, indicating that the low frequency of CD4+CD25+TIM-3+ T cells was restricting the efficacy of the Treg responses in AKI patients.
Conclusions: We demonstrated that TIM-3 downregulation impaired the function of Treg cells in AKI. The therapeutic potential of CD4+CD25+TIM-3+ T cells in AKI should be investigated in future studies. 相似文献
In cystic fibrosis, a recessive genetic disease caused by defects in the cystic fibrosis conductance regulator (CFTR), the main cause of death is lung infection and inflammation. Nutritional deficits have been proposed to contribute to the excessive host inflammatory response in both humans and Cftr-knockout mice. Cftr-knockout mice and gut-corrected Cftr-knockout mice expressing human CFTR primarily in the gut were challenged with Pseudomonas aeruginosa-laden agarose beads; they responded similarly with respect to bronchoalveolar lavage cell counts and levels of the acute-phase cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and IL-6. Wild-type mice fed the liquid diet used to prevent intestinal obstruction in Cftr-knockout mice had inflammatory responses to P. aeruginosa-laden agarose beads similar to those of wild-type mice fed an enriched solid diet, so dietary effects are unlikely to account for differences between wild-type mice and mice with cystic fibrosis. Finally, since cystic fibrosis patients and Cftr-knockout mice have an imbalance in fatty acids (significantly lower-than-normal levels of docosahexaenoic acid), the effects of specific supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid of wild-type and Cftr-knockout mice on their inflammatory responses to P. aeruginosa-laden agarose beads were tested. There were no significant differences (P = 0.35) in cumulative survival rates between Cftr-knockout mice and wild-type mice provided with either the liquid diet Peptamen or Peptamen containing docosahexaenoic acid. In conclusion, diet and docosahexaenoic acid imbalances alone are unlikely to explain the differences in the host response to lung infections with mucoid P. aeruginosa between mice with cystic fibrosis and their wild-type counterparts. 相似文献