T. Vaidya et al., THE GENE FOR A T-LYMPHOCYTE TRIGGERING FACTOR FROM AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMES, The Journal of experimental medicine, 186(3), 1997, pp. 433-438
An early and essential event in the protective immune response against
most viruses and protozoa is the production of interferon-gamma (IFN-
gamma). In contrast, during infection with African trypanosomes, proto
zoan parasites that cause human sleeping sickness, the increased level
s of IFN-gamma do not correlate with a protective response, We showed
previously that African trypanosomes ex-press a protein called T lymph
ocyte triggering factor (TLTF), which triggers CD8(+) T lymphocytes to
proliferate and to secrete IFN-gamma. Here, we isolate the gene for T
LTF and demonstrate that the recombinant version of TLTF specifically
induces CD8(+), but not CD4(+), T cells to secrete IFN-gamma. Studies
with TLTF fused to the green fluorescent protein show that TLTF is loc
alized to small vesicles that are found primarily at or near the flage
llar pocket, the site of secretion in trypanosomes. TLTF is likely to
be only the first example of a class of proteins that we designate as
trypanokines, i.e., factors secreted by trypanosomes that modulate the
cytokine network of the host immune system for the benefit of the par
asite.