Severe neurological complications caused by cerebral malaria (CM) are the main death cause in children under 5 years old. Immune response disorder inside the host body is important mechanism that causes the development of CM. The current malaria endemic areas, malaria patients are often accompanied with helminth infections, but the outcome depends on the category of strains, severity, and route of infection. Schistosoma japonicum and ECM models were used to explore the role site of pro inflammatory immune responses in combined infection as well as the correlated immune mechanism. The established combined infection models was adopted to monitor the parasitemia level and survival time in host; DC subpopulations, macrophages, Treg and expression levels of CD86, TLR4 and TLR9 in spleen were determined and tested with FACS. The secretion levels of IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ and NO in the spleen cell cultured supernatant were tested and detected with ELISA and Griess method. The results showed that the infection of S. japonicum increased the body weight, reduced parasitemia and prolonged survival time of mice. Combined infection contained the number of splenic DC subgroup, macrophages, and TLR9 expression level was also significantly reduced. ELISA and Griess determination results showed that combined infection significantly reduced the expression level of pro inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α, IFN-γ and NO, the number of Treg and IL-10 level were simultaneously increased. Therefore, the infection of S. japonicum could inhibit the occurrence of ECM through pro inflammatory immune response, accordingly prolonged the survival of the host. |