Grupo de Pesquisas em Biologia e Imunologia de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Grupo de Pesquisas em Helmintologia e Malacologia Médica, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Front Immunol. 2022 Jul 12;13:889645. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.889645. eCollection 2022.
The tegument of is involved in essential functions for parasite survival and is known to stimulate immune responses in pre-clinical vaccine trials. Smtal-9, a member of the tegument-allergen-like (TAL) family, is one of the components of the tegument of schistosomula recognized by sera from immunized and protected mice. In this work, we assessed the role of Smtal-9 in parasite survival using the RNAi approach. Also, we cloned and expressed a recombinant form of Smtal-9 and evaluated its ability to induce protection in mice. knockdown did not impact parasite survival , but significantly decreased schistosomula size. Additionally, significant reduction in both parasite and egg burdens were observed in mice inoculated with -knockdown schistosomula. Immunization using the Smtal-9 as an antigen conferred partial protection against challenge infection. Overall, our results indicate that Smtal-9 is a candidate target for drug and/or vaccine development due to its important role in parasite biology and survival.
血吸虫的表皮参与寄生虫生存的基本功能，已知在临床前疫苗试验中刺激免疫反应。 Smtal-9 是表皮过敏原样 (TAL) 家族的成员之一，是免疫和保护小鼠血清识别的幼体表皮的成分之一。在这项工作中，我们使用 RNAi 方法评估了 Smtal-9 在寄生虫生存中的作用。此外，我们克隆和表达了 Smtal-9 的重组形式，并评估了其在小鼠中诱导保护的能力。 Smtal-9 的敲低并不影响寄生虫的生存，但显著减小了幼体的大小。此外，用敲低的幼体接种的小鼠中观察到寄生虫和卵负荷均显著降低。使用 Smtal-9 作为抗原进行免疫接种可部分抵抗挑战感染。总的来说，我们的结果表明 Smtal-9 是药物和/或疫苗开发的候选靶标，因为它在寄生虫生物学和生存中具有重要作用。
