Dendritic Cells and Their Multiple Roles during Malaria Infection

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in the initiation of adaptive immune responses, efficiently presenting antigens to T cells. This ability relies on the presence of numerous surface and intracellular receptors capable of sensing microbial components as well as inflammation and on a very efficient machinery for antigen presentation. In this way, DCs sense the presence of a myriad of pathogens, including Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria. Despite many efforts to control this infection, malaria is still responsible for high rates of morbidity and mortality. Different groups have shown that DCs act during Plasmodium infection, and data suggest that the phenotypically distinct DCs subsets are key factors in the regulation of immunity during infection. In this review, we will discuss the importance of DCs for the induction of immunity against the different stages of Plasmodium, the outcomes of DCs activation, and also what is currently known about Plasmodium components that trigger such activation.

Response to Trypanosoma cruzi by Human Blood Cells Enriched with Dentritic Cells Is Controlled by Cyclooxygenase-2 Pathway

“…Our observation that T. cruzi infection stimulated the release of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 (involved in the control of intracellular infection) are in contrast with previous report showing no increase in the basal production of cytokines by human DCs infected with T. cruzi (Van Overtvelt et al, 1999 ). However, this effect presents similarity to infection by other pathogens, which induce DCs activation (Henderson et al, 1997 ; Gorak et al, 1998 ; Yamamoto et al, 1998 ; Amorim et al, 2016 ).…”

Proteomics study of human cord blood reticulocyte-derived exosomes

“…Elegant studies on the mechanism of antigen-specific T cell stimulation by peptide-bearing exosomes demonstrated activation of T cell proliferation mainly in the presence of mature dendritic cells 44 . We thus used a functional assay 38 to demonstrate the potential capacity of HuRex to interact with dendritic cells as they play a pivotal role in antigen presentation in natural malarial human infections 45 . This assay previously demonstrated that ganglioside-containing vesicles such as viral-like particles or exosomes could be captured by mature dendritic cells expressing Siglec-1 39 .…”

Infectious Sporozoites of Plasmodium berghei Effectively Activate Liver CD8α+ Dendritic Cells

“…The infectious status of sporozoites might influence the innate immune cells that ultimately modulate the CD8 + T cell response. Dendritic cells (DCs) are shown to be involved in the induction of protective immunity against various pathogens including Plasmodia ( 22 , 23 ). Only limited studies demonstrated that the role of distinct subsets of DCs in the generation of malaria protective CD8 + T cells ( 22 ) including LS-specific CD8 + T cells, known to confer the sterile immunity evoked by RAS immunization ( 22 ).…”

“…Dendritic cells (DCs) are shown to be involved in the induction of protective immunity against various pathogens including Plasmodia ( 22 , 23 ). Only limited studies demonstrated that the role of distinct subsets of DCs in the generation of malaria protective CD8 + T cells ( 22 ) including LS-specific CD8 + T cells, known to confer the sterile immunity evoked by RAS immunization ( 22 ). While depletion of DCs fails to induce protection induced by RAS vaccination, adoptive transfer of DCs loaded with circumsporozoite protein (CSP) antigen is shown to generate antigen-specific CD8 + T cells conferring partial protection on the challenge with Inf.…”