Human Schistosome Infection and Allergic Sensitisation.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Parasitology Research Volume 2012, Article ID 154743, 17 pages doi:10.1155/2012/154743 Review Article Human Schistosome Infection and Allergic Sensitisation Nadine Rujeni, David W. Taylor, and Francisca Mutapi Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, Centre for Immunity, Infection, and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, King’s Buildings, West Mains Rd, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK Correspondence should be addressed to Francisca Mutapi, f.mutapi@ed.ac.uk Received 14 May 2012; Accepted 28 June 2012 Academic Editor: Maria Ilma Araujo Copyright © 2012 Nadine Rujeni et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Several field studies have reported an inverse relationship between the prevalence of helminth infections and that of allergic sensitisation/atopy. Recent studies show that immune responses induced by helminth parasites are, to an extent, comparable to allergic sensitisation. However, helminth products induce regulatory responses capable of inhibiting not only antiparasite immune responses, but also allergic sensitisation. The relative effects of this immunomodulation on the development of protective schistosome-specific responses in humans has yet to be demonstrated at population level, and the clinical significance of immunomodulation of allergic disease is still controversial. Nonetheless, similarities in immune responses against helminths and allergens pose interesting mechanistic and evolutionary questions. This paper examines the epidemiolog