Poster Presentation Australasian Society for Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting 2014

Transplantation of mesenteric lymph nodes from mice treated with a hookworm protein protects recipients from allergic asthma (#365)

Severine Navarro 1 , Darren Pickering 1 , Ivana Ferreira 1 , Paul Giacomin 1 , Tim Sparwasser 2 , John Croese 3 , Christian Engwerda 4 , Alex Loukas 1
  1. AITHM - James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD, Australia
  2. Institute of Infection Immunology, TWINCORE Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, Hannover, Germany
  3. Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  4. QIMR Berghofer MEdical Rsearch Institute, Brisbane, QLD

In the developed world, declining prevalence of anthropophilic parasitic infections correlates with increased incidence of allergic disorders. Parasitic worms manipulate the immune system by secreting immunoregulatory molecules that offer promise as a novel therapeutic modality for inflammatory diseases. We have identified a protein secreted by parasitic hookworms, AIP-2, that suppressed airway inflammation in a mouse model of asthma. AIP-2 was largely captured by mesenteric CD103+ dendritic cells and suppression of airway inflammation was dependent on Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) that originated in the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and accumulated in mucosal sites. Here we demonstrate that the transplantation of whole MLN tissue from AIP-2-treated mice into naïve hosts revealed a lymphoid tissue conditioning that promoted Treg induction and long-term maintenance. On going experiments will tease out (i) the involvement of the dendritic cell or stroma compartment and (ii) whether the transplant allows for the induction of de novo Tregs. Our findings indicate that recombinant AIP-2 could serve as a novel curative therapeutic for allergic asthma and other inflammatory diseases.