Abstract

Filarial nematodes are parasites that have the ability to persist in their hosts for extended periods of time due to the employment of various mechanisms to divert or down-regulate the hosts immune responses. One of these mechanisms is the production of immunomodulatory excretory-secretory (ES) products. This review will discuss the properties of one such product, ES-62, which over the years, has been shown to interact with and modulate the activities of a variety of cells of the immune system including B and T lymphocytes, dendritic cells, macrophages and mast cells. Overall, ES-62 diverts the immune system towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype and consistent with this it has been shown to have therapeutic potential in models of inflammatory disease associated with autoimmunity and allergy.

Keywords: Signal transduction, ES-62, filarial nematode, immunomodulation, immunomodulatory, autoimmunity, Allergy, excretory-secretory, glucosamine-labelled ES-62, N- glycosidase, anti-inflammatory