Extracellular vesicles released from the filarial parasite < i > Brugia malayi < /i > downregulate the host mTOR pathway

by Alessandra Ricciardi, Sasisekhar Bennuru, Sameha Tariq, Sukhbir Kaur, Weiwei Wu, Abdel G. Elkahloun, Anush Arakelyan, Jahangheer Shaik, David W. Dorward, Thomas B. Nutman, Roshanak Tolouei Semnani We have previously shown that the microfilarial (mf) stage ofBrugia malayi can inhibit the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR; a conserved serine/threonine kinase critical for immune regulation and cellular growth) in human dendritic cells (DC) and we have proposed that this mTOR inhibition is associated with the DC dysfunction seen in filarial infections. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain many proteins and nucleic acids including microRNAs (miRNAs) that might affect a variety of intracellular pathways. Thus, EVs secreted from mf may elucidate the mechanism by which the parasite is able to modulate the host immune response during infection. EVs, purified from mf ofBrugia malayi and confirmed by size through nanoparticle tracking analysis, were assessed by miRNA microarrays (accession number GSE157226) and shown to be enriched (>2-fold, p-value
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research