Nieto C G, García-Alonso M, Requena J M, Mirón C, Soto M, Alonso C, Navarrete I
Departamento de Parasitología, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Extremadura, Caceres, Spain.
Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 1999 Feb 1;67(2):117-30. doi: 10.1016/s0165-2427(98)00213-x.
Leishmaniasis by Leishmania infantum in the Mediterranean Basin constitutes an important problem in both human and veterinary medicine. Based in both the importance of canids as reservoirs for the human disease and the fact that the canine disease may be an excellent model for the human condition, the present work has been conducted to analyze clinical and immune mechanisms associated with canine experimental leishmaniasis. Six-month-old mixed-breed dogs were intravenously infected with L. infantum promastigotes and the infection course was monitored along a 343 days-period. On day 75 post-infection (p.i.), amastigotes were observed in the lymph nodes of all dogs. The analysis of the humoral response against total L. infantum antigens by both ELISA and Western blotting evidenced a correlation between the levels of IgG isotypes (IgG1 and IgG2) and disease progression. It was observed that in those animals showing either a regressive or an oligosymptomatic form of the disease, the anti-Leishmania IgG1 antibodies were undetectable whereas those animals developing active disease showed high levels of anti-Leishmania IgG1 antibodies. Additionally, the time-course of antibody production against L. infantum recombinant antigens in the experimentally infected dogs has been analyzed. The present data suggest that reactivity against the heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70) may be used as diagnostic marker of early steps of infection, and that the appearance of anti-histone antibodies is associated with progression of infection to disease status.
地中海盆地由婴儿利什曼原虫引起的利什曼病在人类医学和兽医学中都是一个重要问题。鉴于犬科动物作为人类疾病储存宿主的重要性，以及犬类疾病可能是人类疾病的一个极佳模型这一事实，开展了本研究以分析与犬类实验性利什曼病相关的临床和免疫机制。对6个月大的混种犬静脉注射婴儿利什曼原虫前鞭毛体，并在343天的时间段内监测感染过程。感染后第75天（p.i.），在所有犬的淋巴结中均观察到无鞭毛体。通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）和蛋白质印迹法对针对婴儿利什曼原虫总抗原的体液反应进行分析，结果表明免疫球蛋白G（IgG）同种型（IgG1和IgG2）水平与疾病进展之间存在相关性。观察到，在那些表现出疾病消退或症状轻微形式的动物中，抗利什曼原虫IgG1抗体检测不到，而那些发展为活动性疾病的动物则显示出高水平的抗利什曼原虫IgG1抗体。此外，还分析了实验感染犬体内针对婴儿利什曼原虫重组抗原的抗体产生的时间进程。目前的数据表明，针对热休克蛋白70（HSP70）的反应性可作为感染早期阶段的诊断标志物，并且抗组蛋白抗体的出现与感染发展为疾病状态相关。
