Ferreirinha Pedro, Correia Alexandra, Teixeira-Coelho Maria, Osório Hugo, Teixeira Luzia, Rocha António, Vilanova Manuel
i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Portugal; IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Vaccine. 2016 Dec 7;34(50):6250-6258. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.10.056. Epub 2016 Nov 1.
Neospora caninum is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite responsible for heavy economic losses in dairy and beef cattle farms worldwide. Although vaccination is widely regarded as the preferable strategy to prevent neosporosis no commercial vaccine is currently available. We have previously shown that intranasal immunization with an N. caninum antigen extract enriched in hydrophobic proteins plus CpG adjuvant protected mice against intragastrically established neosporosis. Nevertheless, the antigen specificity as well as the long-term protective effect of this immunization strategy were not determined. Here, we show that the protective effect of this intranasal immunization procedure lasted for at least 20weeks. Protection was accompanied by long-lasting elevated levels of parasite-specific serum IgG and intestinal IgA. Moreover, spleen and mesenteric lymph node cells obtained from non-infected long-term immunized mice responded by producing interferon-γ following in vitro parasite-antigen recall. Analysis of serum IgG and intestinal IgA antibody reactivity in immunized mice identified dense granule antigen 7 (NcGRA7) and microneme associated protein 1 (NcMIC1) as immunodominant antigens respectively recognized by those antibody fractions. In summary, this work shows that a previously reported mucosal immunization strategy against N. caninum infection established through the gastrointestinal tract is effective in the long term.
犬新孢子虫是一种专性细胞内原生动物寄生虫,在全球范围内的奶牛场和肉牛场造成了巨大的经济损失。尽管疫苗接种被广泛认为是预防新孢子虫病的首选策略,但目前尚无商业疫苗可用。我们之前已经表明,用富含疏水蛋白的犬新孢子虫抗原提取物加CpG佐剂进行鼻内免疫可保护小鼠免受经胃内感染建立的新孢子虫病。然而,这种免疫策略的抗原特异性以及长期保护作用尚未确定。在此,我们表明这种鼻内免疫程序的保护作用持续了至少20周。保护作用伴随着寄生虫特异性血清IgG和肠道IgA水平的长期升高。此外,从未感染的长期免疫小鼠获得的脾脏和肠系膜淋巴结细胞在体外寄生虫抗原刺激后通过产生干扰素-γ作出反应。对免疫小鼠血清IgG和肠道IgA抗体反应性的分析确定致密颗粒抗原7(NcGRA7)和微线体相关蛋白1(NcMIC1)分别是这些抗体组分识别的免疫显性抗原。总之,这项工作表明,先前报道的通过胃肠道建立的针对犬新孢子虫感染的粘膜免疫策略在长期内是有效的。