Decreased atopy in children infected with Schistosoma haematobium: a role for parasite-induced interleukin-10.
Lancet 2000 Nov 18;356(9243):1723-7 (ISSN: 0140-6736)
van den Biggelaar AH; van Ree R; Rodrigues LC; Lell B; Deelder AM; Kremsner PG; Yazdanbakhsh M
Department of Parasitology, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
BACKGROUND: Most of the effort directed at understanding the role infections have in preventing allergy has focused on bacteria and viruses and their ability to divert the immune system towards T-helper-1 responses and away from proallergic T-helper-2 responses. However, helminth infections, highly prevalent in large parts of the developing world, where allergy is uncommon, stimulate strong T-helper-2 responses. We investigated the influence of chronic helminth infections on the prevalence of atopy and aimed to understand the relation at a detailed immunological level.
METHODS: 520 Gabonese schoolchildren were tested for skin reaction to house-dust mite and other allergens, for Schistosoma haematobium eggs in urine, and for microfilariae in blood samples. Total and mite-specific IgE antibodies were measured. A subsample selected on the basis of their skin test to house-dust mite received detailed immunological investigations.
FINDINGS: Children with urinary schistosomiasis had a lower prevalence of a positive skin reaction to house-dust mite than those free of this infection (odds ratio 0.32 [95% CI 0.16-0.63]). The degree of sensitisation to house-dust mite could not explain this difference in skin-prick positivity. Schistosome-antigen-specific concentrations of interleukin-10 were significantly higher in infected children, and higher specific concentrations of this anti-inflammatory cytokine were negatively associated with the outcome of skin-test reactivity to mite (0.53 [0.30-0.96]). No association between polyclonal IgE antibodies and skin-test results was found.
INTERPRETATION: The anti-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-10, induced in chronic schistosomiasis, appears central to suppressing atopy in African children.
Comment In: Comment In: RefSource:Lancet. 2000 Nov 18; 356(9243):1699-701/PMID:11095252; Comment In: Comment In: RefSource:Lancet. 2001 Apr 21; 357(9264):1290/PMID:11421210
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