The innate immune response is supposed to play an essential role in the control of amebic liver abscess (ALA), a severe form of invasive amoebiasis due to infection with the protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. In a mouse model for the disease, we previously demonstrated that Jα18^-/- mice, lacking invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, suffer from more severe abscess development. Here we show that the specific activation of iNKT cells using α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) induces a significant reduction in the sizes of ALA lesions, whereas CD1d^−/− mice develop more severe abscesses. We identified a lipopeptidophosphoglycan from E. histolytica membranes (EhLPPG) as a possible natural NKT cell ligand and show that the purified phosphoinositol (PI) moiety of this molecule induces protective IFN-γ but not IL-4 production in NKT cells. The main component of EhLPPG responsible for NKT cell activation is a diacylated PI, (1-O-[(28∶0)-lyso-glycero-3-phosphatidyl-]2-O-(C16:0)-Ins). IFN-γ production by NKT cells requires the presence of CD1d and simultaneously TLR receptor signalling through MyD88 and secretion of IL-12. Similar to α-GalCer application, EhLPPG treatment significantly reduces the severity of ALA in ameba-infected mice. Our results suggest that EhLPPG is an amebic molecule that is important for the limitation of ALA development and may explain why the majority of E. histolytica-infected individuals do not develop amebic liver abscess. Amoebiasis is a widespread human parasitic disease caused by the intestinal protozoan Entamoeba histolytica. There are two major clinical manifestations of the disease, amebic colitis and amebic liver abscess. Interestingly, only a small proportion of E. histolytica-infected individuals develop invasive disease, whereas the majority harbors the parasite within the gut without clinical symptoms. So far, cells of the innate immune system have been described to constitute the main host defense mechanism for the control of amoebiasis, relying largely on the early production of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), a protein, which activates macrophages to kill microorganisms including parasites. However, the IFN-γ-producing cells as well as the amebic antigen involved in the activation have not been identified. Here we demonstrate that mice challenged with live E. histolytica, and which are deficient of a specific lymphocyte population known as natural killer T cells (NKT cells), have a reduced capacity to control ameba infection and develop much larger amebic liver abscesses compared to normal mice. In addition, we isolated a molecule from the surface membrane of E. histolytica, which constitutes a lipopeptidophosphoglycan, and which activates NKT cells for the production of protective IFN-γ. Thus, our study provides a mechanism for the innate control of ameba invasion that might explain why the majority of E. histolytica-infected individuals do not develop amebic disease.

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