Measuring the Immune Memory Response of In Vitro Polarized Th1, Th2, and Th17 Cells in the Face of OVA TransgenicLeishmania major inMouse Model

Abstract

AbstractTh1 and Th2 cytokines determine the outcome ofLeishmania majorinfection and immune protection depends mainly on memory T cells induced during vaccination. This largely hinges on the nature and type of memory T cells produced. In this study, transgenicLeishmania majorexpressing membrane associated ovalbumin (mOVA) and soluble ovalbumin (sOVA) are used as a model to study whether fully differentiated Th1/ Th2 &Th17 cells can recall immune memory and tolerate pathogen manipulation. Naïve OT-II T cells werein vitropolarised into Th1/Th2, and these cells were transferred adoptively into recipient mice. Following transferring the memory cells, recipient mice were challenged with OVA transgenicLeishmania majorand wild type parasite was used a control. Thein vitropolarised T helper cells continued to produce the same cytokine signatures after challenged by both forms of OVA-expressingLeishmania majorparasitesin vivo. This suggests antigen-experienced cells cells remain the same or unaltered in the face of OVA transgenicLeishmania major. Such ability of the antigen-experienced cells to remain resilient to manipulation by the parasite signifies that vaccines might be able to produce immune memory responses and withstand against the parasite immune manipulation and protect the host from infection.