Schistosoma mansoni Infection Is Associated With Increased Monocytes and Fewer Natural Killer T Cells in the Female Genital Tract

Justin R Kingery; Andrea Chalem; Crispin Mukerebe; Peter S Shigella; Donald Miyaye; Ruth G Magawa; Maureen Ward; Samuel E Kalluvya; Jason McCormick; Jane K Maganga; Soledad Colombe; Christine Aristide; Paul L A M Corstjens; Myung Hee Lee; John M Changalucha; Jennifer A Downs

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac657

Schistosoma mansoni Infection Is Associated With Increased Monocytes and Fewer Natural Killer T Cells in the Female Genital Tract

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Dec 7;9(12):ofac657. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac657. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Justin R Kingery^{1

2}, Andrea Chalem^{1

3}, Crispin Mukerebe⁴, Peter S Shigella⁴, Donald Miyaye⁴, Ruth G Magawa⁴, Maureen Ward¹, Samuel E Kalluvya⁵, Jason McCormick⁶, Jane K Maganga^{4

7}, Soledad Colombe⁸, Christine Aristide¹, Paul L A M Corstjens⁹, Myung Hee Lee¹, John M Changalucha⁷, Jennifer A Downs^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Global Health, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
² Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁴ National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Mwanza, Tanzania.
⁶ Flow Cytometry Core Laboratory, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit, Mwanza, Tanzania.
⁸ Outbreak Research Team, Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁹ Department of Cell and Chemical Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, TheNetherlands.

Abstract

Schistosoma mansoni infection may impair genital mucosal antiviral immunity, but immune cell populations have not been well characterized. We characterized mononuclear cells from cervical brushings of women with and without S mansoni infection. We observed lower frequencies of natural killer T cells and higher frequencies of CD14⁺ monocytes in infected women.

Keywords: Schistosoma mansoni; female urogenital schistosomiasis; monocytes; schistosomiasis; women.

Grants and funding

D43 TW011826/TW/FIC NIH HHS/United States