EXPRESSION PROFILES OF TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR 2 IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS OF ALLERGIC PATIENTS HARBORING PARASITIC INFECTIONS
Amal A. El-Moamly1, Soha E. Younes2, Ola A. Ismail1 and Ahmed O. Al-Namroty1
Departments of Parasitology1 and Clinical Pathology2, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
There is growing international interest in the possible relationships between helminthic infections and allergic diseases. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) emerged as pattern-recognition receptors, residing on/in innate immune cells with specific conserved components on different microbes. The aim of the present work was to investigate the association between parasitic infections and allergic diseases (allergic bronchial asthma, rhinitis and eczema). The study also aimed to investigate toll like receptor 2 (TLR2) expression pattern in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in allergic parasitic infected patients in comparison to non-allergic non-infected individuals. The study included 2 equal groups (total study population = 348), allergic and non-allergic groups. Each individual was subjected to routine parasitological investigation. Their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stained with specific antibodies (mAbs) to investigate the percentage and the level of TLR expression using flow cytometry. Analysis of TLR-2 in PBMCs from allergic patients harboring parasitic infections revealed increase surface expression of TLR-2 compared to those of non-allergic non-infected group. These findings suggest that TLRs might play a role in innate immune recognition in which the expression of TLRs on antigen presenting cells (APCs) could be regulated by parasitic infection.
June 2011