Wiley, Immunology, 2(143), p. 164-173, 2014
DOI: 10.1111/imm.12298
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Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells specifically targeted during Plasmodium infection. Upon infection, DCs show impaired antigen-presentation and T cell activation abilities. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether cellular extracts obtained from P.berghei-infected erythrocytes (PbX) modulate DCs phenotypically and functionally and the potential therapeutic usage of PbX-modulated DCs in the control of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE, the mouse model for human Multiple Sclerosis). We found that PbX-treated DCs have impaired maturation and stimulated the generation of regulatory T cells when cultured with naïve T lymphocytes in vitro. When adoptively transferred to C57BL/6 mice the EAE severity was reduced. Disease amelioration correlated with a diminished infiltration of cytokine-producing T cells in the Central Nervous System (CNS) as well as the suppression of encephalitogenic T cells. Our study shows that extracts obtained from Plasmodium berghei-infected erythrocytes modulate DCs towards an immunosuppressive phenotype. In addition, the adoptive transfer of PbX-modulated DCs was able to ameliorate EAE development through the suppression of specific cellular immune responses towards neuro-antigens. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present evidence that DCs treated with Plasmodium berghei extracts are able to control autoimmune neuroinflammation.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.