Modulation of CD28 and CD86 expression in patients with paracoccidioidomycosis in different periods of treatment

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, a thermo-dimorphic fungus, is the ethiologic agent of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM). The recidive is the greatest obstacle of this disease, because the yeast usually returns after the long treatment period. In the present work, we have investigated the cellular immune response of cells from peripheral blood drawn from patients with different duration of PCM. The classification of patients ranged from nontreated to those with long-standing disease over 5 years. Unstimulated as well as cells stimulated with phytohemaglutinin or two different antigen preparations, secreted (MEXO) or somatic (PbAg) of P. brasiliensis, were characterized. We found that cells from patients with disease proliferate considerably upon stimulation with the antigen preparations and that cells from patients with disease of long duration does not proliferate that vigorously as from patients with more recent diagnosis. Both interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-4 appear to be increased in patients, but IFN-gamma tended to increase upon treatment while IL-4-secretion decreased. With respect to CD28 and CD86, we found that the subset of CD28 positive CD8 cells are decreased in all stages of the disease as compared to control individuals. A subset of CD86 positive CD19 cells appeared to be considerably increased compared to the controls. Indeed, our results demonstrated that the treatment of PCM patients promoted a regulation of IFN-gamma, IL-4 levels and CD28, CD86 expression bringing new insight to the cellular immune response in PCM.