Therapeutic Effect of Interferon‐γ Gene Transfer in Experimental Visceral Leishmaniasis

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Abstract
Interferon (IFN)-γ, in both natural endogenous form and administered as exogenous protein, induces control over visceral Leishmania donovani in experimentally infected BALB/c mice. To further characterize the therapeutic role of IFN-γ in host defense against intracellular L. donovani, the efficacy of IFN-γ delivered by gene transfer was tested. One week after infection, normal and IFN-γ gene-disrupted (GKO) BALB/c mice were injected with an IFN-γ gene-bearing mammalian expression plasmid (pIFN). Plasmid-specific IFN-γ transcripts were detected in liver and spleen. Whereas liver parasite burdens more than doubled in untreated and mock-treated normal and GKO mice during the subsequent 2 weeks, animals injected with pIFN had controlled visceral infection and reduced parasite burdens. These results indicate that, in infected tissues, IFN-γ delivered by gene transfer enhances control over disseminated intracellular infection.

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