Population level changes in schistosome‐specific antibody levels following chemotherapy

Abstract

Summary Aims Previous studies have reported that chemotherapy of schistosomiasis by praziquantel in humans boosts protective antibody responses against S mansoni and S haematobium. A number of studies have reported schistosome‐specific antibody levels before and after chemotherapy. Using these reports, a meta‐analysis was conducted to identify predictors of population level change in schistosome‐specific antibody levels after chemotherapy. Methods and results Following a systematic review, 92 observations from 26 articles published between 1988 and 2013 were included in this study. Observations were grouped by antigen type and antibody isotypes for the classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. The study showed that the change in antibody levels was variable: (a) between different human populations and (b) according to the parasite antigen and antibody isotypes. Thus, while anti‐worm responses predominantly increased after chemotherapy, anti‐egg responses decreased or did not show a significant trend. The change in antibody levels depended on a combination of age and infection intensity for anti‐egg IgA, IgM, IgG1, IgG2 and anti‐worm IgM and IgG. Conclusion The study results are consistent with praziquantel treatment boosting anti‐worm antibody responses. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in post‐treatment changes in specific antibody levels that is related to host age and pre‐treatment infection intensity.

Survey of Schistosomiasis in Saint Lucia: Evidence for Interruption of Transmission

“…Even if the child had been infected in 2017 and naturally cleared his infection by 2018, although the antigen tests may have turned negative, true antibody responses to worm antigens do not clear that quickly. 15 The finding that none of the children were positive for S. mansoni infection even though almost half of them reported contact with fresh water suggests that schistosomiasis transmission may have been interrupted on Saint Lucia. However, additional work will be necessary to verify this finding.…”

Distinct Schistosoma mansoni-Specific Immunoglobulin Subclasses Are Induced by Different Schistosoma mansoni Stages—A Tool to Decipher Schistosoma mansoni Infection Stages

“…Assessments from the Sudanese Ministry of Health state that more than eight million people are at risk of schistosomiasis [1], and an estimated 5.8 million people (around 15% of the total population) require treatment [20]. In order to improve effective antihelminthic treatments as well as prevention of unnecessary treatment, in-depth knowledge about host-parasite interaction is needed, including schistosome-specific antibody responses [22]. The detection of antischistosomal antibodies is a useful addition to microscopy [23] since the latter technique is time consuming, requires expertise and has limited sensitivity in cases of low egg secretion.…”

Natural Intra- and Interclade Human Hybrid Schistosomes in Africa with Considerations on Prevention through Vaccination

“…SNPs emerging through transversional/transitional or synonymous/non-synonymous nucleotide substitutions leading to e.g., alternative splicing or silent mutations are of high importance in particular among sequences serving as drug or vaccine targets; they may lead to structural and functional protein alterations impacting charge changes and residue conservation affecting drug binding sites or antibody recognition of antigenic epitopes [ 27 , 114 , 115 ]. Hosts react in the following general manners against schistosomal infections, i.e., development of age-dependent partial protective immunity to reinfection from repeated adult worm death, and initiation of immunopathogenic and/or immunoregulatory mechanisms against parasitic antigens released from eggs trapped in tissues [ 116 , 117 , 118 ].…”