Death Receptor Ligation or Exposure to Perforin Trigger Rapid Egress of the Intracellular Parasite Toxoplasma

J Immunol. 2007 Dec 15;179(12):8357-65

Death Receptor Ligation or Exposure to Perforin Trigger Rapid Egress of the Intracellular Parasite Toxoplasma gondii

Persson EK, Agnarson AM, Lambert H, Hitziger N, Yagita H, Chambers BJ, Barragan A, Grandien A

Center for Infectious Medicine

The obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii chronically infects up to one-third of the global population, can result in severe disease in immunocompromised individuals, and can be teratogenic. In this study, we demonstrate that death receptor ligation in T. gondii-infected cells leads to rapid egress of infectious parasites and lytic necrosis of the host cell, an active process mediated through the release of intracellular calcium as a consequence of caspase activation early in the apoptotic cascade. Upon acting on infected cells via death receptor- or perforin-dependent pathways, T cells induce rapid egress of infectious parasites able to infect surrounding cells, including the Ag-specific effector cells.

PMID: 18056381 [PubMed - in process]