Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 7, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048418
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [5R01AI079085-03, ARRA 1RC1AI086788-01, 1R56AI091889-01A1]
- Harvard Catalyst Pilot Grant through The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center
- National Center for Research Resources
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health [5UL1RR025758-02]
- Harvard University and its affiliated academic health care centers
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Wide-spread protozoan parasites carry endosymbiotic dsRNA viruses with uncharted implications to the human host. Among them, Trichomonas vaginalis, a parasite adapted to the human genitourinary tract, infects globally similar to 250 million each year rendering them more susceptible to devastating pregnancy complications (especially preterm birth), HIV infection and HPV-related cancer. While first-line antibiotic treatment (metronidazole) commonly kills the protozoan pathogen, it fails to improve reproductive outcome. We show that endosymbiotic Trichomonasvirus, highly prevalent in T. vaginalis clinical isolates, is sensed by the human epithelial cells via Toll-like receptor 3, triggering Interferon Regulating Factor -3, interferon type I and proinflammatory cascades previously implicated in preterm birth and HIV-1 susceptibility. Metronidazole treatment amplified these proinflammatory responses. Thus, a new paradigm targeting the protozoan viruses along with the protozoan host may prevent trichomoniasis-attributable inflammatory sequelae.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available