Resistance to Cryptococcus neoformans is associated with an inflammatory response to Toxoplasma gondii in the central nervous system of mice

Abstract

We have studied the resistance of Toxoplasma gondii-infected mice to subsequent infection with Cryptococcus neoformans. Mice infected with the moderately virulent ME49 strain of T. gondii are resistant to proliferation of yeast cells in their brains after intravenous inoculation of the serotype A C. neoformans strain 184. The resistance serves to limit proliferation of yeast cells that colonize the brain. Maximal levels of resistance correlate not with maximal systemic specific anti-Toxoplasma resistance but rather with high levels of inflammatory response, presumably to parasites released from cysts in the brain. Resistance is localized, as mice infected with ME49 show only limited resistance in their lungs after intratracheal instillation of yeast cells, but there is substantial protection against development of cerebral cryptococcosis.