Chagasic patients are able to respond against a viral antigen from influenza virus

Paola Lasso, Diana Mesa, Natalia Bolaños, Adriana Cuéllar, Fanny Guzmán, Zulma Cucunuba, Fernando Rosas, Víctor Velasco, Maria C. Thomas, Manuel C. López, John M. González, Concepción J. Puerta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas' disease, is an obligate intracellular parasite which induces a CD8+ T cell immune response with secretion of cytokines and release of cytotoxic granules. Although an immune-suppressive effect of T. cruzi on the acute phase of the disease has been described, little is known about the capacity of CD8+ T cell from chronic chagasic patients to respond to a non-T. cruzi microbial antigen.Methods: In the present paper, the frequency, phenotype and the functional activity of the CD8+ T cells specific from Flu-MP*, an influenza virus epitope, were determined in 13 chagasic patients and 5 healthy donors.Results: The results show that Flu-MP* peptide specific CD8+ T cells were found with similar frequencies in both groups. In addition, Flu-MP* specific CD8+ T cells were distributed in the early or intermediate/late differentiation stages without showing enrichment of a specific sub-population. The mentioned Flu-MP* specific CD8+ T cells from chagasic patients were predominately TEM (CCR7- CD62L-), producing IL-2, IFNγ, CD107a/b and perforin, and did not present significant differences when compared with those from healthy donors.Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that there is no CD8+ T cell nonspecific immune-suppression during chronic Chagas disease infection. Nonetheless, other viral antigens must be studied in order to confirm our findings.

Original languageEnglish
Article number198
JournalBMC Infectious Diseases
Volume12
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 Aug 2012

Keywords

  • CD8+ T cells
  • Chagas disease
  • Non-T. cruzi microbial antigen
  • Nonspecific immune-suppression

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Chagasic patients are able to respond against a viral antigen from influenza virus'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this