RESUMO
Parasite infections affect billions of people and their domesticated animals worldwide, and remain as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, but such diseases are still neglected in endemic countries. Therapeutic interventions consisted mostly of drugs, which are highly toxic and may lead to resistance. The immunopathology of parasites is very complex due to their multistage life cycles and long lifetime involving several hosts, leading many times to chronic infections and sometimes to death, by compromising nutritional status, affecting cognitive processes, and inducing severe tissue reactions. Vaccination is a challenge, and immunotherapy is completely disregarded because of their complex interactions with hosts and vectors. This review will bring concepts of immunological aspects for some important parasitic infections, and present the most recent phage display-derived antibodies or peptidomimetics for parasite targets. This chapter will also discuss the future perspectives of such potential anti-infective immunobiologicals for parasitic diseases.
Assuntos
Anticorpos/uso terapêutico , Antiparasitários/uso terapêutico , Técnicas de Visualização da Superfície Celular , Parasitos/efeitos dos fármacos , Doenças Parasitárias/tratamento farmacológico , Biblioteca de Peptídeos , Animais , Anticorpos/efeitos adversos , Anticorpos/imunologia , Antiparasitários/efeitos adversos , Antiparasitários/imunologia , Interações Hospedeiro-Parasita , Humanos , Parasitos/imunologia , Parasitos/patogenicidade , Doenças Parasitárias/imunologia , Doenças Parasitárias/parasitologiaRESUMO
Neurocysticercosis (NC) is the most important neurological disease of parasitic origin in humans. IgA and IgG detection in serum from neurocysticercosis patients was tested using some antigenic preparations of total saline extract from Taenia saginata: detergent (D) and aqueous (A) phases extracted with Triton X-114 and the jacalin bound (JBF) and unbound fractions (JUF) obtained by affinity chromatography using jacalin column. Samples were obtained from 45 patients with definitive NC, who were subdivided into active-NC group and inactive-NC group; 35 patients with other parasitoses; and 30 apparently healthy individuals. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Specificity to detect IgA and IgG for D phase, respectively, were 89.8% and 86.9% and for IgG detection 91.3% and 76.8% when using D phase and JUF, respectively. D phase and JBF proved to be specific and efficient and could be efficiently utilized as an alternative antigen for IgA detection in NC, with comparable results with IgG.