Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Chronicity In Strongyloides Stercoralis Infections: Dichotomy Of The Protective Immune Response To Infective And Autoinfective Larvae In A Mouse Model., R. A. Brigandi, H. L. Rotman, T. J. Nolan, G. A. Schad, D. Abraham

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Strongyloidiasis is an intestinal disease that can last for decades due to the occurrence of autoinfective larvae (L3a) in an infected person, which contribute to the maintenance of the population of adult worms in the intestine. The goal of the present study was to determine if L3a are susceptible to the protective immunity that targets the infective stage of the worm, the third-stage larvae (L3). Mice immunized and challenged with Strongyloides stercoralis L3 kill more than 90% of challenge larvae contained within diffusion chambers. The L3 do not remain antigenically static in mice, however, but undergo some degree of antigenic …