IL-33-mediated protection against experimental cerebral malaria is linked to induction of Type 2 innate lymphoid cells, M2 macrophages and regulatory T cells
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2015
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PLoS One
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Public Library of Science
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University of Cape Town
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Author Summary Cerebral malaria (CM) caused by the parasite Plasmodium sp . is a fatal disease, especially in children. Currently there is no effective treatment. We report here our investigation on the role of a recently discovered cytokine IL-33, in treating experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) in the susceptible C57BL/6 mice. IL-33 protects the mice against ECM. The protection is accompanied by a reduction of Th1 response and the enhancement of type 2 cytokine response. We also found that IL-33 mediates its protective effect by inducing a population of type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), which then polarize macrophages to alternatively-activated phenotypes (M2). M2 in turn expand regulatory T cells (Tregs) which suppress the deleterious Th1 response. Our report therefore reveals hitherto unrecognised mechanisms of the regulation of ECM and provide a novel function of IL-33.
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Besnard, A. G., Guabiraba, R., Niedbala, W., Palomo, J., Reverchon, F., Shaw, T. N., ... & Liew, F. Y. (2015). IL-33-mediated protection against experimental cerebral malaria is linked to induction of Type 2 innate lymphoid cells, M2 macrophages and regulatory T cells. PLoS Pathog, 11(2), e1004607. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1004607