A. Cassone et al., ANTICANDIDAL ACTIVITY AND INTERLEUKIN-1-BETA AND INTERLEUKIN-6 PRODUCTION BY POLYMORPHONUCLEAR LEUKOCYTES ARE PRESERVED IN SUBJECTS WITH AIDS, Journal of clinical microbiology, 31(5), 1993, pp. 1354-1357
Polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMN; or neutrophils) from uninfected o
r human immunodeficiency virus-infected subjects were tested for their
ability to inhibit growth of Candida albicans and produce interleukin
-1beta (1L-1beta) and IL-6 in vitro. It was seen that PMN from AIDS (C
enters for Disease Control stage IV) patients expressed equal if not g
reater anticandidal activity compared with the activity expressed by n
eutrophils from all other subjects examined. On exposure to granulocyt
e macrophage-colony-stimulating factor or to a mannoprotein constituen
t (MP-F2) from C. albicans itself, PMN from AIDS patients showed enhan
ced antifungal activity and production of remarkable quantities of IL-
1beta and IL-6. These findings suggest that the functional abilities o
f PMN to inhibit Candida growth and secrete relevant proinflammatory a
nd immunomodulatory cytokines are intrinsically preserved in AIDS pati
ents.