Immediate hypersensitivity responses in the immunopathogenesis of human onchocerciasis

Abstract

It is not clear what role immediate hypersensitivity immune responses have in the pathogenesis of human onchocerciasis, but it is certain that these responses are prominent both in the course of natural infection and during the Mazzotti reactions that follow treatment with diethylcarbamazine. In humans, the levels of total serum IgE associated with onchocerciasis are as high or higher than those associated with almost any helminth infection, although specific IgE antibodies to Onchocerca volvulus appear to be a small and still poorly characterized fraction of the total serum IgE. Evidence about the relationship of these prominent IgE responses in patients with onchocerciasis to the onchocercal skin disease that manifests as pruritus and papular eruptions is conflicting, but in a guinea pig model of ocular pathology induced by onchocerca microfilariae evidence for the pathogenetic importance of IgE and immediate hypersensitivity is much less equivocal. The suggestive findings from this model make it imperative to carry out similar studies of Onchocerca-affected human eyes to determine whether immediate hypersensitivity responses play a similar critical role in the pathogenesis of the ocular lesions in humans.