Immunology of Taenia solium taeniasis and human cysticercosis

Abstract

The life cycle of Taenia solium, the pork tapeworm, is continuously closed in many rural settings in developing countries when free roaming pigs ingest human stools containing T. solium eggs and develop cysticercosis, and humans ingest pork infected with cystic larvae and develop intestinal taeniasis, or may also accidentally acquire cysticercosis by faecal-oral contamination. Cysticercosis of the human nervous system, neurocysticercosis, is a major cause of seizures and other neurological morbidity in most of the world. The dynamics of exposure, infection and disease as well as the location of parasites result in a complex interaction which involves immune evasion mechanisms and involutive or progressive disease along time. Moreover, existing data are limited by the relative lack of animal models. This manuscript revises the available information on the immunology of human taeniasis and cysticercosis.

Keywords: Peru; Taenia solium; cysticercosis; neurocysticercosis; parasitic infections; seizures.

Figure 1

Life cycle of Taenia solium (adapted with permission from Garcia HH and Martinez SM. Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis, Lima, Ed. Universo; 1999: 360 p.)

Figure 2

Intraparenchymal neurocysticercosis: typical images of viable (top left), degenerating (top center), and calcified (top right). Extraparenchymal neurocysticercosis: intraventricular cyst (bottom left), a cyst mass in the Sylvian fissure (bottom center), and basal subarachnoid cysticercosis (bottom right).