Whipworm Infection in Mice Increases Coinfection of Enteric Pathogens but Promotes Clearance of Ascaris Larvae From the Lungs

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Infection with intestinal whipworms (Trichuris spp.) causes widespread morbidity and may alter responses to enteric and extraintestinal coinfections. Here, we show that Trichuris muris infection in mice increases coinfection with 2 evolutionary divergent enteric pathogens, the bacterium Citrobacter rodentium and the helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus. Coinfection caused reduced weight gain and promoted type 1–biased inflammation. In contrast, T. muris–infected mice were more resistant to migrating Ascaris suum larvae in the lungs. Our results highlight the divergent nature of pathogen interactions and suggest that whipworm infection is a risk factor for coinfections with other pathogens within the gastrointestinal tract.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Infectious Diseases
Volume227
Issue number12
Pages (from-to)1428-1432
Number of pages5
ISSN0022-1899
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Financial support . This work was supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark (grant 7026-0094B).

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.

    Research areas

  • Citrobacter, coinfection, helminth, Trichuris, whipworm

ID: 361079946