scholarly journals Investigation of the antigenicity and protective efficacy of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens in search of potential diagnostic and vaccine candidates against visceral leishmaniasis

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Ahmad Ejazi ◽  
Smriti Ghosh ◽  
Anirban Bhattacharyya ◽  
Mohd Kamran ◽  
Sonali Das ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), is a parasitic disease that causes serious medical consequences if treatment is delayed. Despite a decline in the number of VL cases in the Indian subcontinent, the commencement of the disease in newer areas continues to be a major concern. Although serological diagnosis mainly by immunochromatographic tests has been found to be effective, a test of cure in different phases of treatment is still desired. Even though a good prophylactic response has been obtained in murine models by a number of vaccine candidates, few have been proposed for human use. Methods In this study, nine antigenic components (31, 34, 36, 45, 51, 63, 72, 91 and 97 kDa) of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens (LAg), were electroeluted and evaluated through ELISA to diagnose and distinguish active VL from one month cured and six months post-treatment patients. Further, to investigate the immunogenicity of electroeluted proteins, human PBMCs of cured VL patients were stimulated with 31, 34, 51, 63, 72 and 91 kDa proteins. Results We found that 34 and 51 kDa proteins show 100% sensitivity and specificity with healthy controls and other diseases. After six months post-treatment, antibodies to 72 and 91 kDa antigens show a significant decline to almost normal levels. This suggests that 34 and 51 kDa proteins are efficient in diagnosis, whereas 72 and 91 kDa proteins may be used to monitor treatment outcome. In another assay, 51 and 63 kDa proteins demonstrated maximum ability to upregulate IFN-γ and IL-12 with minimum induction of IL-10 and TGF-β. The results indicating that 51 and 63 kDa proteins could be strong candidates for human immunization against VL. In contrast, 34 and 91 kDa proteins demonstrated a reverse profile and may not be a good vaccine candidate. Conclusions The preliminary data obtained in this study proposes the potential of some of the antigens in Leishmania diagnosis and for test of cure. Additionally, some antigens demonstrated good immunoprophylactic cytokine production through T cell-mediated immune response, suggesting future vaccine candidates for VL. However, further studies are necessary to explore these antigens in diagnosis and to access the long-term immune response.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Ahmad Ejazi ◽  
Smriti Ghosh ◽  
Anirban Bhattacharyya ◽  
Mohd Kamran ◽  
Sonali Das ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a parasitic disease causes serious medical consequences if treatment is delayed. Despite a decline in the number of VL cases in the Indian Subcontinent, the commencement of the disease in newer areas continues to be a major concern. Although serological diagnosis mainly by immunochromatographic tests has been found to be effective, test for cure in different phases of treatment is still desired. Even though a good prophylactic response has been obtained in murine models by a number of vaccine candidates, few have been proposed for human use. Methods: In this study, nine antigenic components (31, 34, 36, 45, 51, 63, 72, 91 and 97 kDa) of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens, LAg, were electroeluted and evaluated through ELISA to diagnose and distinguish active VL from one month cured and six month past infection. Further, to investigate the immunogenicity of electroeluted proteins, human PBMCs of cured VL patients were stimulated with 31, 34, 51, 63, 72, and 91 kDa proteins. Results: We found that 34 and 51 kDa proteins show 100% sensitivity and specificity with healthy controls and other diseases. After six months post treatment, antibodies to 72 and 91 kDa antigens show a significant decline to almost normal levels. This suggests that 34 and 51 kDa are efficient in diagnosis whereas 72 and 91 kDa may be used to monitor treatment outcome. In another study, 51 and 63 kDa proteins demonstrated maximum ability for up-regulate IFN-g and IL-12 with minimum induction of IL-10 and TGF-β. The results indicating that 51 and 63 kDa proteins could be strong candidates for human immunization against VL. In contrast, 34 and 91 kDa demonstrated a reverse profile and may not be a good vaccine candidate. Conclusions: The preliminary data obtained in this study proposes the potential of some of the antigens in Leishmania diagnosis and for test of cure. Additionally, some antigens demonstrated good immunoprophylactic cytokine production through T cell mediated immune response suggesting future vaccine candidates for VL. However, further studies are necessary to explore these antigens in diagnosis and to access long-term immune response.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Ahmad Ejazi ◽  
Smriti Ghosh ◽  
Anirban Bhattacharyya ◽  
Mohd Kamran ◽  
Sonali Das ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a parasitic disease causes serious medical consequences if treatment is delayed. Despite a decline in the number of VL cases in the Indian Subcontinent, commencement of the disease in newer areas continues to be a major concern. Although serological diagnosis mainly by immunochromatographic tests has been found to be effective, test for cure in different phases of treatment is still desired. Even though good prophylactic response has been obtained in murine models by a number of vaccine candidates, few have been proposed for human use. Methods In this study, nine antigenic components (31, 34, 36, 45, 51, 63, 72, 91 and 97 kDa) of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens, LAg, were electroeluted and evaluated through ELISA to diagnose and distinguish active VL from one month cured and six month past infection. Further, to investigate the immunogenicity of electroeluted proteins, humans PBMCs of cured VL patients were stimulated with 31, 34, 51, 63, 72, and 91 kDa proteins. Results We found that 34 and 51 kDa fractions show 100% sensitivity and specificity with healthy controls and other diseases. After six months post treatment antibodies to 72 and 91 kDa antigens show a significant decline to almost normal levels. This suggests that 34 and 51 kDa are efficient in diagnosis whereas 72 and 91 kDa may be used to monitor treatment outcome. In another study, 51 and 63 kDa proteins demonstrated maximum ability for up-regulate IFN-g and IL-12 with minimum induction of IL-10 and TGF-β. The results indicating that 51 and 63 kDa proteins could be strong candidates for human immunization against VL. In contrast, 34 and 91 kDa demonstrated a reverse profile and may not be a good vaccine candidate. Conclusions The preliminary data obtained in this study proposes the potential of some of the antigens in Leishmania diagnosis and for test of cure. Additionally, some antigens demonstrated good immunoprophylactic cytokine production through T cell mediated immune response suggesting future vaccine candidates for VL. However, further studies are necessary to explore these antigens in diagnosis and to access long-term immune response.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Ahmad Ejazi ◽  
Smriti Ghosh ◽  
Anirban Bhattacharyya ◽  
Mohd Kamran ◽  
Sonali Das ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundVisceral leishmaniasis (VL), a parasitic disease causes serious medical consequences if treatment is delayed. Despite a decline in the number of VL cases in the Indian Subcontinent, commencement of the disease in newer areas continues to be a major concern. Although serological diagnosis mainly by immunochromatographic tests has been found to be effective, test for cure in different phases of treatment is still desired. Even though good prophylactic response has been obtained in murine models by a number of vaccine candidates, few have been proposed for human use. MethodsIn this study, nine antigenic components (31, 34, 36, 45, 51, 63, 72, 91 and 97 kDa) of Leishmania promastigote membrane antigens, LAg, were electroeluted and evaluated through ELISA to diagnose and distinguish active VL from one month cured and six month past infection. Further, to investigate the immunogenicity of electroeluted proteins, humans PBMCs of cured VL patients were stimulated with 31, 34, 51, 63, 72, and 91 kDa proteins.ResultsWe found that 34 and 51 kDa fractions show 100% sensitivity and specificity with healthy controls and other diseases. After six months post treatment antibodies to 72 and 91 kDa antigens show a significant decline to almost normal levels. This suggests that 34 and 51 kDa are efficient in diagnosis whereas 72 and 91 kDa may be used to monitor treatment outcome. In another study, 51 and 63 kDa proteins demonstrated maximum ability for up-regulate IFN-g and IL-12 with minimum induction of IL-10 and TGF-β. The results indicating that 51 and 63 kDa proteins could be strong candidates for human immunization against VL. In contrast, 34 and 91 kDa demonstrated a reverse profile and may not be a good vaccine candidate. ConclusionsThe present study accounts our search for new biomarkers for tests of clinical cure as well as effective immunoprophylactic candidates for VL vaccination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Molalegne Bitew ◽  
Chintu Ravishankar ◽  
Soumendu Chakravarti ◽  
Gaurav Kumar Sharma ◽  
Sukdeb Nandi

Recent invasion of multiple bluetongue virus serotypes (BTV) in different regions of the world necessitates urgent development of efficient vaccine that is directed against multiple BTV serotypes. In this experimental study, cell mediated immune response and protective efficacy of binary ethylenimine (BEI) inactivated Montanide™ ISA 206 adjuvanted pentavalent (BTV-1, 2, 10, 16 and 23) vaccine was evaluated in sheep and direct challenge with homologous BTV serotypes in their respective group. Significant (P<0.05) up-regulation of mRNA transcripts of IFN-α, IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, IFN-γ and TNF-α in PBMCs of vaccinated animals as compared to control (un-vaccinated) animals at certain time points was observed. On the other hand, there was a significant increase in mean ± SD percentage of CD8+ T cells after 7 days post challenge (DPC) but, the mean ± SD percentage of CD4+ T-cell population slightly declined at 7 DPC and enhanced after 14 DPC. Significant differences (P<0.05) of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells population was also observed between vaccinated and unvaccinated sheep. The vaccine also significantly (P<0.05) reduced BTV RNA load in PBMCs of vaccinated animals than unvaccinated animals following challenge. There were no significant difference (P>0.05) in cytokine induction, BTV RNA load and CD8+ and CD4+ cell count among BTV-1, 2, 10, 16 and 23 serotype challenges except significant increase in mean ± SD percentage of CD8+ in BTV-2 group. These findings put forwarded that binary ethylenimine inactivated montanide adjuvanted pentavalent bluetongue vaccine has stimulated cell mediated immune response and most importantly reduced the severity of BTV-1, 2, 10, 16 and 23 infections following challenge in respective group.


2008 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 1003-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Bhowmick ◽  
Rajesh Ravindran ◽  
Nahid Ali

ABSTRACT Visceral leishmaniasis is deadly if not treated, and development of a vaccine with long-term immunity remains a challenge. In this study, we showed that cationic distearoyl phosphatidylcholine (DSPC) liposomes, when used as vaccine adjuvant with the immunodominant 63-kDa glycoprotein (gp63) of Leishmania donovani promastigotes, induced significant protection against progressive visceral leishmaniasis in susceptible BALB/c mice. gp63 used without adjuvant elicited partial protection but in association with liposomes exhibited marked resistance in both the livers and spleens of the mice challenged 10 days after the last vaccination. The protective efficacy of liposomal gp63 vaccination was dose dependent, with 2.5 μg of protein showing optimal protection. The immunity conferred by this vaccine formulation was durable, as mice challenged 12 weeks after immunization were still protected, and the infection was controlled for at least 3 months postchallenge. Production of gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) by splenic T cells, and of serum immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) and IgG2a following immunization, suggested that a mixed Th1/Th2 response had been induced following immunization. However, control of disease progression and parasitic burden in mice vaccinated with gp63 in cationic DSPC liposomes was associated with enhancement of antigen-specific IFN-γ and downregulation of IL-4, demonstrating a Th1 bias. Long-term immunity elicited by this vaccine corresponded to, in addition to the presence of antigen-specific Th1, CD8+ T-cell responses. Our results demonstrated that stable cationic liposomes containing gp63 acted as a potent adjuvant for protein antigen to induce long-term protection against L. donovani that represents an alternative to DNA vaccination.


Parasitology ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Shaw ◽  
D. A. Erasmus

SUMMARYThe long-term, in vivo effects of a single, subcurative dose (200 mg/kg body weight of mouse) of praziquantel on the structure of adult Schistosoma mansoni and on the process and speed of tegumental repair are described. In both male and female worms praziquantel caused often extensive damage to the tegument, in the form of surface blebbings, swellings and lesions, and vacuolization and disruption of the subtegumental tissues. Repair of the drug-induced tegumental damage occurred slowly with partial and, more rarely, complete repair only being seen after 65 days post-treatment (p.t.), although signs of damage were still observed, particularly in male worms, at 100 days p.t. In contrast, repair of damage to the subtegumental/parenchymal tissues including the tegumental perikarya occurred relatively quickly, with the majority of worms examined appearing normal by 8–12 days p.t. The possible role(s) of the host immune response in relation to the speed of tegumental repair in vivo is discussed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 584-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Casanovas-Taltavull ◽  
M. Guadalupe Ercilla ◽  
Cecilia P. Gonzalez ◽  
Elias Gil ◽  
Odette Viñas ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bharti Bhatia ◽  
Wakako Furuyama ◽  
Thomas Hoenen ◽  
Heinz Feldmann ◽  
Andrea Marzi

Ebola virus (EBOV) is the cause of sporadic outbreaks of human hemorrhagic disease in Africa, and the best-characterized virus in the filovirus family. The West Africa epidemic accelerated the clinical development of vaccines and therapeutics leading to licensure of vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics for human use in recent years. The most widely used vaccine is based on vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) expressing the EBOV glycoprotein (GP)(VSV-EBOV). Due to its favorable immune cell targeting, this vaccine has also been used as base-vector for the development of second generation VSV-based vaccines against Influenza, Nipah, and Zika viruses. However, in these situations it may be beneficial if the immunogenicity against EBOV GP is minimized to induce a better protective immune response against the other foreign immunogen. Here, we analyzed if EBOV GP can be truncated to be less immunogenic yet still able to drive replication of the vaccine vector. We found that the EBOV GP glycan cap and the mucin-like domain are both dispensable for VSV-EBOV replication. The glycan cap domain, however, appears critical for mediating a protective immune response against lethal EBOV challenge in mice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subir Karmakar ◽  
Nevien Ismail ◽  
Fabiano Oliveira ◽  
James Oristian ◽  
Wen Wei Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractVisceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is fatal if untreated. There is no licensed vaccine available against human leishmaniasis. We recently demonstrated protection in mice against L. major infection using a CRISPR genome edited attenuated Leishmania major strain (LmCen−/−). Here, as a pre-clinical step, we evaluated the protective efficacy of LmCen−/− against VL induced by sand fly transmitted Leishmania donovani in hamsters. Intradermal immunization of hamsters with LmCen−/− did not develop any lesion; while still priming a pro-inflammatory immune response. When challenged with L. donovani either by intradermal needle injection or by infected sand flies, LmCen−/−-immunized hamsters were protected, not showing spleen or liver pathology averting VL fatality compared to control animals. Spleen cells from LmCen−/− immunized and infected sand fly challenged hamsters produced significantly higher Th1-associated cytokines and chemokines including IFN-γ and TNF-α, and significantly reduced expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and IL-21, compared to non-immunized challenged animals. We further developed a GLP-grade LmCen−/− which showed equal protection as laboratory-grade LmCen−/− parasites in hamsters. Importantly, GLP-grade LmCen−/− parasites also induced a proinflammatory immune response in the PBMCs isolated from healthy people living in non-endemic and endemic for VL as well as cured VL people living in endemic region. Together, this study demonstrates that the LmCen−/− parasites are safe and efficacious against VL and it is a strong candidate vaccine to be tested in a human clinical trial.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document