Ahmadpour E, Sarvi S, Hashemi Soteh M B, Sharif M, Rahimi M T, Valadan R, Tehrani M, Khalilian A, Montazeri M, Daryani A
Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
Parasite Immunol. 2017 Apr;39(4). doi: 10.1111/pim.12419.
Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe and even fatal disease in human beings and animals. Effective vaccines may contribute to control toxoplasmosis. GRA14, a novel secreted dense granule protein of T. gondii, has been proposed as a vaccine candidate due to its intervacuolar transport and unique topology in the parasitophorous vacuole membrane. In this study, we constructed a DNA vaccine encoding GRA14 of T. gondii. BALB/c mice were immunized intramuscularly three times at 2 week intervals and challenged with T. gondii RH strain 5 weeks later. The immune responses were evaluated using lymphocyte proliferation assay, cytokine and antibody measurements. In addition, the survival times and parasite load of mice challenged with the virulent T. gondii RH strain were evaluated. The results showed that the mice immunized with pcGRA14 induced both enhanced specific humoral and Th1 cellular immune responses, and also mice immunized with the pcGRA14 showed an increased survival time and decreased parasite load compared with control groups (P<.05). The results indicated, for the first time, that the GRA14 is a potential DNA vaccine against toxoplasmosis.
刚地弓形虫可在人类和动物中引发严重甚至致命的疾病。有效的疫苗可能有助于控制弓形虫病。GRA14是刚地弓形虫一种新的分泌性致密颗粒蛋白，因其在液泡间的转运以及在寄生泡膜中的独特拓扑结构，已被提议作为候选疫苗。在本研究中，我们构建了一种编码刚地弓形虫GRA14的DNA疫苗。BALB/c小鼠每隔2周进行3次肌肉注射免疫，5周后用刚地弓形虫RH株进行攻毒。使用淋巴细胞增殖试验、细胞因子和抗体检测来评估免疫反应。此外，还评估了用强毒株刚地弓形虫RH株攻毒的小鼠的存活时间和寄生虫载量。结果显示，与对照组相比，用pcGRA14免疫的小鼠诱导了增强的特异性体液免疫和Th1细胞免疫反应，且用pcGRA14免疫的小鼠存活时间延长，寄生虫载量降低（P<0.05）。结果首次表明，GRA14是一种抗弓形虫病的潜在DNA疫苗。
