CAN LEVAMISOLE UPREGULATE THE EQUINE CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNE RESPONSE IN VITRO?

摘要

Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) is arguably the most common and costly equine neurologic diseases in the United States. The national seroprevalence is >50%, but only 0.5-1% of all horses develops disease during their lifetimes. Some EPM affected horses have decreased immune responses. A cell-mediated immune response appears to be protective for development of EPM after infection with S. neurona in mouse models. Therefore, in addition to specific anti-protozoal medications, levamisole has been proposed as an adjunctive therapy to upregulate the immune response in EPM affected horses. Studies have been performed in other species to address whether levamisole alters immune function in vitro or in vivo, but there are very limited studies in equids. We hypothesized that We hypothesized that levamisole can upregulate a cell mediated macrophage (M1) dendritic cell (DC1) CD4 T-helper 1 (Th1) CD8 Tc1 immune response in vitro.