Depressed immunity to a Salmonella typhimurium vaccine in mice experimentally parasitized by Taenia crassiceps

To assess the immunological status of mice parasitized with Taenia crassiceps metacestodes, 6-month old female BALB/c mice experimentally parasitized with T. crassiceps and immunized with Salmonella typhimurium antigens were infected with S. typhimurium virulent bacilli (1.6×LD50). Both T. crassiceps-parasitized and immunized and parasitized mice showed a very high susceptibility to infection (**P<0.01) with higher bacteremia than control and immunized-control animals and produced a reduced IgG response to S. typhimurium antigens (*P<0.05). This indicates that T. crassiceps is able to preclude development of immunity to S. typhimurium, because appropriate antibody production to a heterologous antigenic stimulus did not take place, and the bacteremia results suggest the parasitosis altered the mononuclear phagocyte system. It has been demonstrated that Taenia solium metacestodes produce a small RNA molecule in culture which suppresses humoral and cellular responses against homologous antigens in mice. We propose that T. crassiceps may be actively synthesizing such a factor, apart from other simultaneously acting immunomodulatory mechanisms, to induce an immunosuppressed state favorable to its development in the host.