Defining a schistosomiasis vaccination strategy - Is really Th1 versus Th2?

Successful vaccine development for schistosomiasis has been hindered by a l ack of consensus on the type of immune response that would provide maximum levels of protective immunity and incomplete knowledge of the key antiparas ite effector mechanisms. Many vaccine studies conducted in mice support typ e-1-cytokine-mediated effector mechanisms, while acquired resistance in hum ans correlates with type-2-cytokine-mediated responses. However, recent dat a from cytokine-knockout mice suggest that choosing between these opposing pathways may be less important than previously hypothesized, as discussed h ere by Thomas Wynn and Karl Hoffmann.