Abstract
After treatment young Kenyan schoolchildren are highly susceptible to reinfection with Schistosoma mansoni. Older children and adults are resistant to reinfection. There is no evidence that this age related resistance is due to a slow development of protective immunological mechanisms, rather, it appears that young children are susceptible because of the presence of blocking antibodies which decline with age, thus allowing the expression of protective responses. Correlations between antibody responses to different stages of the parasite life-cycle suggest that, in young children, antigen directed, isotype restriction of the response against cross-reactive polysaccharide egg antigens results in an ineffectual, or even blocking antibody response to the schistosomulum.
Human antibody responses to Schistosoma mansoni: does antigen directed, isotype restriction result in the production of blocking antibodies?
David W. Dunne1
Anthony J. C. Fulford1
Anthony E. Butterworth1
David Koech2
John H. Ouma3
University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology, Cambridge, UK
Kenya Medical Research Institute, Biomedical Sciences Research Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
Ministry of Health, Division of Vector Borne Diseases, Nairobi, Kenya
After treatment young Kenyan schoolchildren are highly susceptible to reinfection with Schistosoma mansoni. Older children and adults are resistant to reinfection. There is no evidence that this age related resistance is due to a slow development of protective immunological mechanisms, rather, it appears that young children are susceptible because of the presence of blocking antibodies which decline with age, thus allowing the expression of protective responses. Correlations between antibody responses to different stages of the parasite life-cycle suggest that, in young children, antigen directed, isotype restriction of the response against cross-reactive polysaccharide egg antigens results in an ineffectual, or even blocking antibody response to the schistosomulum.
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Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
26 June 2009 -
Date of issue
1987
