Abstract
Protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and Toxoplasma gondii are major causes of parasitic diseases in both humans and animals. The immune system plays a critical role against protozoa, but their immune mechanism remains poorly understood. This highlights the need to investigate the function of immune cells involved in the process of parasite infections and the responses of host immune system to parasite infections. Mast cells (MCs) are known to be central players in allergy and anaphylaxis, and it has been demonstrated that MCs have crucial roles in host defense against a number of different pathogens, including parasites. To date, there are many studies that have examined the interaction of helminth-derived antigens and MCs. As one of the major effector cells, MCs also play an important role in the immune response against some parasitic protozoa, but their role in protozoan infections is, however, less well characterized. Herein, we review the current knowledge about the roles of MCs and their mediators during infections involving highly pathogenic protozoa including Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and T. gondii. We offer a general review of the data from patients and experimental animal models infected with the aforementioned protozoa, which correlate MCs and MC-derived mediators with exacerbated inflammation and disease progression as well as protection against the parasitic infections in different circumstances. This review updates our current understanding of the roles of MCs during parasitic protozoan infections, and the participation of MCs in parasitic protozoan infections could be of a potential therapeutic target.
Highlights
Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and Toxoplasma gondii are some of the most important medical protozoan parasites that cause diseases in humans
Accumulating evidences have demonstrated that Mast cells (MCs) have pivotal roles in parasitic protozoan diseases [14, 15]; this has led us to focus on the role of MCs in the immune responses against parasitic infections including Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and T. gondii
There was a positive association between the disease duration and MCs count in the skin biopsy MC numbers were significantly increased in the upper dermis of BALB/c but not in those of C57BL/6 and CBA/T6T6 mice after L. major infection Significantly enhanced lesion progression and lesional parasite burdens were observed, accompanied by significantly decreased levels of IFN-γ and IL-17A Dermic inflammatory reaction with many degranulated MCs was observed Increased number of MCs in the skin was correlated with clinical progression of canine visceral leishmaniasis Increased lesion sizes and lesional parasitic loads and reduced locally infiltrating cells were observed in KitW/KitW-v mice
Summary
Reviewed by: Julia Walochnik, Medical University of Vienna, Austria Marisa Mariel Fernandez, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and Toxoplasma gondii are major causes of parasitic diseases in both humans and animals. The immune system plays a critical role against protozoa, but their immune mechanism remains poorly understood This highlights the need to investigate the function of immune cells involved in the process of parasite infections and the responses of host immune system to parasite infections. We review the current knowledge about the roles of MCs and their mediators during infections involving highly pathogenic protozoa including Plasmodium spp., Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and T. gondii.
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