14 DAY TRIAL // A sixth of the world's population living in underdeveloped countries is infected with parasitic helminthes – worms that survive inside the body and feed on their host, that can cause chronic intestinal illnesses that can lead to long-term disabilities.
Biomedical researchers Irah King and Markus Mohrs, from the Trudeau Institute, are focusing on diseases caused bu gut-dwelling worms in an attempt of understanding how immune cells send and receive signals that trigger the body's immune response.
In a new study, Dr King and colleagues proved that a soluble factor released by CD4+ T cells (a subset of cells that aid B cells in generating an immune response) called interleukin-21 (IL-21) determines B cells to produce antibodies that combine helminth-derived products and inhibit their ability to become adult worms in the host.
They experimented in genetically modified mice without the receptor for IL-21, and they observed that B cells directly require IL-21 signals before differentiating into plasma cells (the major antibody-producing B cell subset).
The researchers concluded that the role of IL-21 signaling in this context is specific because it does not impact other forms of B cell activation or CD4+ T cell differentiation – another leukocyte subset critical for protective immunity to helminthes.
Dr King stated that previous studies established that “B cells must produce antibodies to protect us from gut-dwelling worms and other parasitic infections.
“However, the signals that B cells need to receive in order to produce antibodies following infection are not yet completely understood,” he added.
All it takes is to be a scientist that studies anti-parasite immunity to realize that the body’s immune responses in the case of a worm infection are very much like those triggered by more common diseases in the developed world, like allergies, asthma or ulcerative colitis.
Irah King and the other researchers hope that by identifying these similarities, they will be able to develop new treatments and therapies.