| Summary: | Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by Leishmania donovani, is a systemic infection of reticulo-endothelial system. There is currently no protective vaccine against VL and chemotherapy is increasingly limited due to appearance of drug resistance to first line drugs such as antimonials and amphotericin B. In the present study, by using a murine model of leishmaniasis we evaluated the function played by soluble leishmanial antigen (SLA) pulsed-CpG-ODN stimulated dendritic cells (SLA-CpG-DCs) in restricting the intracellular parasitic growth. We establish that a single dose of SLA-CpG-DCs vaccination is sufficient in rendering complete protection against Leishmania donovani infection. In probing the possible mechanism, we observed that SLA-CpG-DCs vaccination results in the significant decrease in Foxp3+GITR+CTLA4+CD4+CD25+ Treg cell population in Leishmania-infected mice. Vaccination with these antigen stimulated dendritic cells results in the decrease in the secretion of TGF-β by these Treg cells by possible regulation of the SMAD signalling. Moreover, we demonstrated that a CXC chemokine, IFN-γ-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), has a direct role in the regulation of CD4+CD25+ Treg cells in SLA-CpG-DCs vaccinated parasitized mice as Treg cells isolated from IP-10 depleted vaccinated mice showed significantly increased TGF-β production and suppressive activity.
|
|---|