Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

Editor

Personal info

View

About

Terms

Javascript disabled

Please enable Javascript support in your browser to use this application.

Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.

[edit this page]

Taylor, A.P. et al.

Intracellular antimicrobial activity in the absence of interferon-gamma: effect of interleukin-12 in experimental visceral leishmaniasis in interferon-gamma gene-disrupted mice.

Despite permitting uncontrolled intracellular visceral infection for 8 wk, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) gene knockout (GKO) mice infected with Leishmania donovani proceeded to reduce liver parasite burdens by 50% by week 12. This late-developing IFN-gamma-independent antileishmanial mechanism appeared to be dependent largely on endogenous tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha): L. donovani infection induced TNF-alpha mRNA expression in parasitized GKO livers and neutralization of TNF-alpha reversed control at week 12.7 d of treatment of infected GKO mice with interleukin-12 (IL-12) readily induced leishmanicidal activity and also partially restored the near-absent tissue granulomatous response, observations that for the first time expand the antimicrobial repertoire of IL-12 to include IFN-gamma-independent effects. The action of IL-12 against L. donovani was TNF-alpha dependent and required the activity of inducible nitric oxide synthase. These results point to the presence of an IFN-gamma-independent antimicrobial mechanism, mediated by TNF-alpha, which remains quiescent until activated late in the course of experimental visceral leishmaniasis. However, as judged by the effect of exogenous IL-12 this quiescent mechanism can readily be induced to rapidly yield enhanced intracellular antimicrobial activity.[1]

References

Intracellular antimicrobial activity in the absence of interferon-gamma: effect of interleukin-12 in experimental visceral leishmaniasis in interferon-gamma gene-disrupted mice. Taylor, A.P., Murray, H.W. J. Exp. Med. (1997) [Pubmed]

Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenes Open Access Licence Privacy Policy Terms of Use apsburg

The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.