{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,20]],"date-time":"2026-10-20T00:28:38Z","timestamp":1792456118426,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772755200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012232","name":"National Key Clinical Specialty Discipline Construction Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Document No. QWJB-125"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Document No. QWJB-125"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012232","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kunlun Talent \u00c2\u00b7 Qinghai Scholar\" Program of Qinghai Province","award":["2024"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosntds.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Negl Trop Dis"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:italic>Echinococcus multilocularis<\/jats:italic>\n                    (\n                    <jats:italic>E. m<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) infection causes alveolar echinococcosis (AE), a serious zoonotic disease characterized by invasive larval growth in the liver. The parasite establishes a chronic infection, suggesting effective modulation of host immunity. Here, we investigated the role of the CCR8\/CCL1 chemokine axis in shaping the hepatic immune microenvironment during\n                    <jats:italic>E.m<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection. In infected wild-type (WT) mice, chronic infection specifically activated the hepatic CCR8\/CCL1 axis, which was associated with a marked accumulation of FOXP3\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    regulatory T cells (Tregs). Notably, although CCR8\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    T cells expanded numerically, their production of effector (IFN-\u03b3, TNF-\u03b1, and perforin) was significantly impaired. In contrast, infected CCR8-knockout (KO) mice developed smaller hepatic lesions, exhibited a reduction in liver weight, and had significantly lower serum ALT levels. Mechanistically, CCR8 deficiency enhanced the effector functions of CD4\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    and CD8\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    T cells, skewing the immune response towards a Th1 phenotype, and partially reversed the immunosuppressive milieu. Our findings establish that the CCR8\/CCL1 axis drives the formation of an immunosuppressive niche in the liver by recruiting both Tregs and functionally suppressed CCR8\n                    <jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>\n                    T cells, thereby facilitating parasite immune evasion. This study not only elucidates a pivotal mechanism of immune escape in AE but also identifies CCR8 as a promising novel immunotherapeutic target for this neglected tropical disease.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0014018","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T18:26:07Z","timestamp":1772821567000},"page":"e0014018","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["CCR8 orchestrates an immunosuppressive niche in the liver to promote Echinococcus multilocularis infection"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Jiao","family":"Hou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5313-5732","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Haining","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"pntd.0014018.ref001","article-title":"Expert consensus for the diagnosis and treatment of cystic and alveolar echinococcosis in humans","author":"E Brunetti","journal-title":"Acta Trop"},{"issue":"9392","key":"pntd.0014018.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1295","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(03)14573-4","article-title":"Echinococcosis","volume":"362","author":"DP 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