IPSE, a urogenital parasite-derived immunomodulatory molecule, suppresses bladder pathogenesis and anti-microbial peptide gene expression in bacterial urinary tract infection.

Our data show that IPSE may play a major role in S. haematobium-associated urinary tract co-infection, albeit in an unexpected fashion. These findings also indicate that IPSE either works in concert with other IL-4-inducing factors to increase susceptibility of S. haematobium-infected hosts to bacterial co-infection or does not contribute to enhancing vulnerability to this co-infection.