Treatment of two patients with diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania mexicana modifies the immunohistological profile but not the disease outcome.
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| Abstract |
Two patients with diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania mexicana were treated with two leishmanicidal drugs (pentamidine and allopurinol) combined with recombinant interferon-gamma restoring Th-1 favouring conditions in the patients. Parasites decreased dramatically in the lesions and macrophages diminished concomitantly, while IL-12-producing Langerhans cells and interferon-gamma- producing NK and CD8 + lymphocytes increased in a reciprocal manner. The CD4+/CD8 + ratio in the peripheral blood normalized. During exogenous administration of interferon-gamma the parasites' capacity to inhibit the oxidative burst of the patients' monocytes was abolished. Even though Th-1-favouring conditions were restored, both patients relapsed two months after therapy was discontinued. We conclude that the tendency to develop a disease-promoting Th-2 response in DCL patients is unaffected by, and independent of, parasite numbers. Even though intensive treatment in DCL patients induced Th-1 disease restricting conditions, the disease-promoting immunomodulation of few persistent Leishmania sufficed to revert the immune response.
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| Authors | N Salaiza-Suazo, P Volkow, R Tamayo, H Moll, R Gillitzer, A Pérez-Torres, R Pérez-Montfort, J D Domínguez, O Velasco-Castrejón, M Crippa, I Becker |
| Journal | Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH (Trop Med Int Health) Vol. 4 Issue 12 Pg. 801-11 (Dec 1999) ISSN: 1360-2276 [Print] England |
| PMID | 10632987 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't) |
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