الكاتب: Multiple References

Apart from its anthelmintic activity in domestic food animals, levamisole is recognized and employed for its immunomodulatory activity. The drug seems to act primarily on cellular immune responses, enhancing immune activity speci cally in immunocytes whose function is impaired (Brunner & Muscoplat, 1980; Mulcahy & Quinn, 1986). When used in a modi ed lymphocyte stimulation test, levamisole signi cantly potentiated the Brucella abortus-induced lymphocyte blastogenesis from unresponsive cattle (Kaneene et al., 1981). Because in this latter study the potentiation was observed only when the drug was added to lymphocyte cultures prior to the addition of the Brucella antigen, the authors concluded that levamisole appeared to prime the lymphocytes and macrophages for interaction with antigen. Levamisole was also found to ameliorate the suppression of lymphocyte function seen in arti cially reared pigs enhancing their responses to values comparable with those of sow reared controls (Hennessy et al., 1987). Importantly, when administered before or together with antigen to piglets and young pigs, levamisole enhanced the secondary rather than primary immune responses (Reyero et al., 1979). The authors suggested that levamisole stimulates the development of memory T or B cells in swine; however, this has never been proven directly. With the use of suitable monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to distinguish naive and memory T cells in swine, this would be clari ed. Antiswine mAbs specic for a truly memory phenotype, CD45RO, are not yet available