Análisis transcripcional de la respuesta inmune en órganos diana de la leishmaniasis

Abstract

The study of the immunological mechanisms in the infection by Leishmania sp, requires the evaluation of the gene expression in vivo, many studies have provided information about what happens at the in vitro level, but the knowledge of the changes at the transcriptome level using the murine model, from tissue of the affected organ, in this case the liver, would allow to obtain an overview of gene expression and a better approach to the immune response in humans. Therefore, in the present study it was proposed to know the gene expression in a first moment of the infection (at 24 hours), from liver tissue of BALB/c mice infected with L. infantum, and samples from uninfected mice as control group. From the RNA extraction and with the retrotranscription products, High-throughput Real-time quantitative PCR was performed to know the expression of 112 genes related to the immune response. Among the main findings, it is possible to highlight that 24 hours post infection predominates the expression of genes involved in the inflammatory response of macrophage activation (M1) where Stat1 seems to have a central role in the innate immune response, since it connects the genes involved in the production of IFN-γ with the genes related to leukocyte chemotaxis. At this time of infection, chemotactic signals have already been generated for T lymphocytes, NK cells and monocytes. Additionally, the detection of costimulatory molecules such as CD40/CD40LG would indicate that activation of CD4+ T lymphocytes is taking place. It also highlights the overexpression of Ifng and Nos2, which It indicates that it would be producing macrophage activation by the classical pathway, important for infection control mechanism in the liver.