| First Author | Sepahpour T | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | NPJ Vaccines | Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 250 |
| PubMed ID | 39702382 | Mgi Jnum | J:360129 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7797505 | Doi | 10.1038/s41541-024-01032-6 |
| Citation | Sepahpour T, et al. (2024) Downregulation of IRF7-mediated type-I interferon response by LmCen(-/-) parasites is necessary for protective immunity. NPJ Vaccines 9(1):250 |
| abstractText | Leishmaniasis is a tropical disease caused by Leishmania parasites and currently has no licensed vaccines. We developed a dermotropic Leishmania major centrin gene-deleted strain (LmCen(-/-)) as a live attenuated vaccine. Recent studies have shown that type I interferons (IFNs) play important roles in immunity to parasitic and viral pathogens. However, their relevance in protective immunity following vaccination is not understood. We found that immunization with LmCen(-/-) induces a transient increase in type I IFN response along with its regulatory factor IRF7 that is downregulated 7-21 days post-immunization, coincided with the induction of a robust Th1 adaptive immune response. Challenge infection with virulent L. donovani parasites showed a significant reduction of splenic and hepatic parasite burden in IRF7(-/-) mice than wild type mice following immunization with LmCen(-/-), suggesting that ablation of type I IFN response is a pre-requisite for the induction of LmCen(-/-) mediated Th1 immunity against L. donovani infection. |
