RG Helminth Immunology

Zu sehen sind freundlich schauende Personen die draußen vor einer großen Holztür aks Gruppe gemeinsam stehen.

Overview

One quarter of the world population is infected with parasitic worms that are called helminths. To avoid being eliminated these parasites actively dampen the immune response of their hosts. This helminth-induced immune modulation also suppresses immune responses to third-party antigens. As a consequence, helminth-infected people may not mount successful immune responses to concomitant infections or to vaccinations. We use the parasitic nematode Strongyloides ratti to investigate this in the mouse system. We are interested in (i) the mechanisms of protective anti-helminth immunity, (ii) the mechanisms of helminth-induced immunomodulation and (iii) the impact of concurrent helminth infection on the outcome of a vaccination against different pathogens.

Life cycle of Strongyloides ratti

Infective S. ratti third stage larvae (L3) live in the free world, actively penetrate the skin of their rodent host and migrate within 2 days via the tissue to the head. L3 are swallowed, moult via a 4^th larval stage to parasitic adults and embed into the mucosa of the small intestine by day 5 post infection. The parasitic adults reproduce by parthenogenesis. Eggs as well as hatched first stage larvae (L1) reach the free world with the faeces by day 6 and may either directly develop into infective L3 or introduce one free-living generation that displays sexual reproduction.