Intracellular prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms cause some of the most intractable problems in the fields of human and animal infectious diseases. Such infections are characteristically long and chronic and accompanied by deleterious immunopathological changes. The nine chapters in this volume, all written by internationally acknowledged experts in their fields, explore the immunological features common to representative intracellular organisms and also the special features whereby particular species evade immune attack and how they are destroyed with special reference to experimental and human listeriosis, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, African and American trypanosomiasis, malaria, cryptosporidiosis and the cattle disease theileriosis. The emphasis is on the roles of lymphocytes, macrophages, NK cells, cytokines and the contrasting roles of Th1/Th2 cells in protective and counter-protective immune responses. The importance of understanding these phenomena for the development of vaccines, for strategies for ameliorating immunopathological responses and for explaining why some infections are important concomitants in AIDS while others are not is stressed. This volume brings together and establishes links between diverse studies concerning the immunological aspects of the host-parasite relationship otherwise scattered throughout the literature. Authoritative and up-to-date, it will be of particular interest to anyone working or teaching in the fields of immunology, parasitology, microbiology and infectious diseases.
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