Abstract
Studies have shown that cysteine protease inhibitors from some parasites have immunosuppressive effects on the host. We previously have cloned a novel cysteine protease inhibitor from Schistosoma japonicum and purified its recombinant version (protein named rSj-C). Its possible inhibitory effect on the host immune response has not been described.
This study shows that rSj-C inhibits lysosomal cysteine protease of murine dendritic cells (DCs). After DCs were incubated with rSj-C and then with soluble adult worm antigen (AWA) of S. japonicum, the mean fluorescence intensity of MHC class II antigens on the surface of DCs decreased significantly by flow cytometry. These results indirectly proved that rSj-C can suppress exogenous-antigen presentation by DCs. The flow cytometric assay revealed that in comparison with control groups, the proportion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T cells among CD4+CD25+ T cells of Schistosom-infected mice increased significantly 8 weeks after the infected mice were injected with rSj-C (p ˂ 0.05). Additionally, the expression levels of cytokines IL-4 and TGF-β produced by T cells increased significantly as compared with these levels in the normal group (p ˂ 0.05). These results clearly show that the cysteine protease inhibitor from S. japonicum is a new parasite-derived immunosuppressive factor.
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Acknowledgements
Professor Li He and Wei Hou revised the manuscript and gave me many suggestions. Besides, my partners gave me so much help in the experiment.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for short NSFC (Grant number 30972568).
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Lin Chen and Baohua He are the first authors and have contributed equally.
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Chen, L., He, B., Hou, W. et al. Cysteine protease inhibitor of Schistosoma japonicum - A parasite-derived negative immunoregulatory factor. Parasitol Res 116, 901–908 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5363-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-016-5363-0