Posted by Kasra
Trichuris trichiura adult male – Image taken from DPDx
Trichuris, is an intestinal roundworm, also known as whipworm, that can be transmitted through ingestion of food contaminated with its eggs. The larvae hatch inside the small intestine and complete their life cycle to adults in the cecum. After maturation, which can take about 3 months, the female worm lays thousands of eggs per day. The parasite can stay in the intetine between 1-5 years. Trichuris trichiura is a parasite of humans, while Trichuris muris is a mouse parasite, used usually as the animal model to study its infection.
In contrast to intracellular pathogens, a Th1 response is non-protective in infection with large extracellular pathogens such as intestinal helminths. For instance, during infection with Trichuris muris, a Th2 response comprising IL-4 and Ig-E production leads to resolution of infection, while a Th1 response comprising IFN-gamma, IL-12 and IL-18 is not protective.
S Hadidi et al. look at regulation of the immune response to T. muris and focus on the importance of the macrophage lipid phosphatase Ship1. Ship1 or Sh-2 containing inositol 5′ phosphatase 1 is a regulator of the PI3K pathway. Hadidi et al. show that Ship1 expression is upregulated steadily following T. muris infection. Ship1-/- mice have higher parasite burden and IFN-gamma while lower levels of IL-13. Also, Ship1-/- macrophages produce more IL-12. Blocking IL-12 or IFN-gamma by blocking antibodies rescued the phenotype by reducing worm burden and increase in IL-13. Thus, they found how activity of this phosphatase can direct the immune response against T. muris infection. It would be very interesting now to see what stimuli induce upregulation of Ship1 and also what are this enzyme’s substrates, which are so important for production of IL-12 by macrophages.
Similar to this story, a few years ago, Abu-Dayyeh et al. and Gomez et al. showed that activating phosphatases is important for Leishmania to establish its infection. Being an intracellular parasite, a Th1 response, with large amounts of IFN-gamma would be protective against Leishmania. So in this context, Leishmania-mediated activation of many phosphatases (most importantly SHP-1) leading to inhibition of IL-12 production leads to disease progression, because it skews the immune response towards Th2. In this situation, Leishmania takes advantage of the phosphatase’s function.
Hadidi S, Antignano F, Hughes MR, Wang SK, Snyder K, Sammis GM, Kerr WG, McNagny KM, & Zaph C (2012). Myeloid cell-specific expression of Ship1 regulates IL-12 production and immunity to helminth infection. Mucosal immunology, 5 (5), 535-43 PMID: 22535180
Abu-Dayyeh I, Shio MT, Sato S, Akira S, Cousineau B, & Olivier M (2008). Leishmania-induced IRAK-1 inactivation is mediated by SHP-1 interacting with an evolutionarily conserved KTIM motif. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2 (12) PMID: 19104650
Gomez MA, Contreras I, Hallé M, Tremblay ML, McMaster RW, & Olivier M (2009). Leishmania GP63 alters host signaling through cleavage-activated protein tyrosine phosphatases. Science signaling, 2 (90) PMID: 19797268
The Parasite Diary 