EFFECT OF MELARSOPROL TREATMENT ON CIRCULATING IL-10 AND TNF-ALPHA LEVELS IN HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS

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Authors
  1. Rhind, S.G.
  2. Sabiston, B.H.
  3. Shek, P.N.
  4. Buguet, A.
  5. Muanga, G.
  6. and others
Corporate Authors
Defence and Civil Inst of Environmental Medicine, Downsview ONT (CAN)
Abstract
The pathogenesis of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) has been the object of considerable research interest but has remained incompletely understood. The importance of cytokines in the pathophysiology of this protozoan infection is now widely recognized, but the full spectrum of cytokines involved has yet to be determined. In the present investigation we compared the plasma concentrations of TNF-alpha and IL-10 in normal African controls and patients suffering from advanced meningocephalic (late-stage) Trypanosomiasis brucei (T.b.) gambiense infections, before and after treatment with the arsenical trypanocide melarsoprol. We found that patients with late-starge T.B. gambiense exhibit chronically elevated circulating levels of both these cytolines, and that these levels quicly decline following melarsoprol treatment. These findings confirm that TNF-alpha is involved in the immunopathogensis of late-stage African trypanosomiasis and suggest that IL-10 may also play an important regulatory role in this disease.
Keywords
Cytokines;Sleeping sickness;Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT)
Report Number
DCIEM-96-P-55 — Reprint
Date of publication
30 Nov 1996
Number of Pages
7
Reprinted from
Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology, vol 83, no 2, 1997, p 185-189
DSTKIM No
98-00043
CANDIS No
506699
Format(s):
Hardcopy;Document Image stored on Optical Disk

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