Unidad de Investigación en Medicina Experimental, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Hospital General de México, Ciudad de México, México.
Instituto de Biotecnología-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, México.
Parasite Immunol. 2019 Feb;41(2):e12608. doi: 10.1111/pim.12608. Epub 2018 Dec 27.
Parasites have been engineered to express fluorescent reporter proteins, yet the impact of red fluorescent proteins on Leishmania infections remains largely unknown. We analysed the infection outcome of Leishmania mexicana parasites engineered for the constitutive expression of mKate protein and evaluated their immunogenicity in BALB/c mice. Infection of BALB/c mice with mKate transfected L. mexicana (Lmex ) parasites caused enlarged lesion sizes, leading to ulceration, and containing more parasites, as compared to Lmex . The mKate protein showed immunogenic properties inducing antibody production against the mKate protein, as well as enhancing antibody production against the parasite. The augmented lesion sizes and ulcers, together with the more elevated antibody production, were related to an enhanced number of TNF-α and IL-1β producing cells in the infected tissues. We conclude that mKate red fluorescent protein is an immunogenic protein, capable of modifying disease evolution of L. mexicana.
寄生虫已被设计表达荧光报告蛋白，但红色荧光蛋白对利什曼原虫感染的影响在很大程度上仍是未知的。我们分析了组成型表达 mKate 蛋白的墨西哥利什曼原虫寄生虫的感染结果，并在 BALB/c 小鼠中评估了它们的免疫原性。与野生型 L. mexicana（Lmex）相比，转染 mKate 的 L. mexicana（Lmex）寄生虫感染 BALB/c 小鼠导致更大的病变，导致溃疡，并含有更多的寄生虫。mKate 蛋白具有免疫原性，可诱导针对 mKate 蛋白的抗体产生，并增强针对寄生虫的抗体产生。增大的病变和溃疡，以及更高的抗体产生，与感染组织中产生更多 TNF-α 和 IL-1β 的细胞有关。我们得出结论，mKate 红色荧光蛋白是一种免疫原性蛋白，能够改变 L. mexicana 的疾病进展。
