Disease relevance of Filariasis

• The antigen-specific immune unresponsiveness seen in bancroftian filariasis was studied by examining lymphokine production in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or PBMC subpopulations from 10 patients with asymptomatic microfilaremia, 13 patients with elephantiasis and 6 normal North Americans [1].
• Autoimmunity and filariasis. Autoantibodies against cytoplasmic cellular proteins in sera of patients with onchocerciasis [2].
• For definition of the characteristics and causes of post-treatment eosinophilic responses, 47 patients with Bancroft's filariasis, who were treated with diethylcarbamazine, and eight patients with schistosomiasis mansoni, who were treated with niridazole, were studied [3].
• Elevated immunoglobulin E against recombinant Brugia malayi gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase in patients with bancroftian filariasis: association with tropical pulmonary eosinophilia or putative immunity [4].
• Trichuriasis requires therapy with mebendazole, while the filariases are treated with diethylcarbamazine [5].

High impact information on Filariasis

• Although introduced in 1947, the mainstay of the therapy and control of the filariases is diethylcarbamazine (N,N-diethyl-4-methyl-1-piperazine carboxamide; DEC), the mode of action of which still remains unknown despite widespread use and intensive laboratory investigations [6].
• Since efficacy and side effects of ivermectin therapy compare favorably with those reported for treatment with the standard antifilarial drug diethylcarbamazine citrate, the major advantage of single-oral-dose administration makes ivermectin the best candidate to replace diethylcarbamazine as the treatment of choice for bancroftian filariasis [7].
• Protective immunity in bancroftian filariasis. Selective recognition of a 43-kD larval stage antigen by infection-free individuals in an endemic area [8].
• We evaluated the cellular immune competence of 101 subjects living in an area of South Kalimantan (Borneo) where Malayan filariasis is endemic [9].
• The diminished expression and function of TLR is thus a likely consequence of chronic Ag stimulation and could serve as a novel mechanism underlying the dysfunctional immune response in filariasis [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Filariasis

• The majority of residents of the village of Bonahoi, in an area where transmission of filariasis had been interrupted by a 20-year insecticide spray program to control malaria, showed no parasitologic signs of active W. bancrofti infection and were negative for both circulating phosphorylcholine Ag and peripheral blood microfilariae [11].
• First, specific antifilarial antibodies of each of the four IgG subclasses were quantified in the sera of 28 patients with Bancroftian filariasis and correlated with the levels of blocking activity in these sera (determined by histamine release assays) [12].
• Wellcome Filariasis seminar '85 [13].
• Furthermore, since chloroquine is well-tolerated but only weakly filaricidal in vivo, the data indicate that use of this drug in combination with other inhibitors of aerobic energy metabolism may be a chemotherapeutically useful approach to the treatment of filariases [14].
• Monoclonal MG3C9-1 A12 detected TCR-related proteins specific for filarial extract, milk proteins, or benzoic acid in the sera of individuals with chronic or asymptomatic filariasis, milk intolerance, or sensitivity to toluene, respectively [15].

Biological context of Filariasis

• Kinetics of circulating human IgG4 after diethylcarbamazine and ivermectin treatment of bancroftian filariasis [16].
• These results indicate that a CHIT1 genotype associated previously with susceptibility to filariasis in residents of southern India and TLR2 and TLR4 polymorphisms do not correlate with infection status or disease phenotype in this Melanesian population [17].
• Epidemiology of subperiodic bancroftian filariasis in Samoa 8 years after control by mass treatment with diethylcarbamazine [18].
• The Filariasis Control Program was established more than 30 years ago in the country and the disease is still a public health problem in some states [19].
• Experimental filariasis of Dipetalonema dessetae in Proechimys oris: 3. Effects of parasitism on the pharmacokinetics of diethylcarbamazine [20].

Anatomical context of Filariasis

• Loss of T lymphocyte proliferation and the emergence of a host response that is dominated by a Th2-type profile are well-established features of human filariasis [21].
• These data suggest that regulatory T cells act, in an IL-10-independent manner, to suppress host immunity to filariasis [22].
• Increase in natural killer cell activity during diethylcarbamazine treatment of patients with filariasis [23].
• The high tissue-lymph IL-1 concentration and activity may signify a cytokine network promoting keratinocyte and fibroblast proliferation commonly seen on skin histology in patients with filariasis [24].

Gene context of Filariasis

• Interleukin-10 (IL-10) counterregulates IL-4-dependent effector mechanisms in Murine Filariasis [25].
• Synergism of gamma interferon and interleukin-5 in the control of murine filariasis [26].
• Recently, data gathered from humans as well as from immunocompromised mouse models suggest that filariasis elicits a complex host immune response involving both Th1 and Th2 components [27].
• Sustained production of IL-4 and IL-5 beyond the first 24 h of stimulation and production of interferon-gamma were seen only in the group with clinical filariasis without active infection [28].
• When the asymptomatic microfilaremic individuals and antigenemic individuals with clinical filariasis were grouped together to constitute all actively infected individuals, the frequency of IFN-gamma-producing cells was also lower than in the nonantigenemic individuals with clinical filariasis (P = 0.04) [29].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Filariasis

• Human autoantibody responses to the ocular antigen were demonstrated by Western blot analysis using sera collected from persons with onchocerciasis, with and without posterior segment pathology, Bancroftian filariasis, and Europeans with no filarial infection [30].
• Mass chemotherapy with diethylcarbamazine for the control of Bancroftian filariasis: a twelve-year follow-up in northern Trinidad, including observations on Mansonella ozzardi [31].
• Parasite antigens in sera and urine of patients with bancroftian and brugian filariasis detected by sandwich ELISA with monoclonal antibodies [32].
• Five hundred and twenty-nine sera obtained from people dwelling in an area endemic for bancroftian filariasis were analysed for the presence of soluble circulating antigens (SCA) of filarial origin by counter immunoelectrophoresis and 303 were found positive [33].
• In order to assess the immunodiagnostic utility of FST skin test antigen purified from Dirofilaria immitis, skin test responses were analyzed in 177 inhabitants of a South Pacific island hyperendemic for Wuchereria bancrofti filariasis [34].

References