Immune responses and protective effect in mice vaccinated orally with surface sporozoite protein of Eimeria falciformis in ISCOMs.

Immunostimulating complexes (ISCOMs) were built after treatment of a purified surface protein from Eimeria falciformis sporozoites with a palmitic acid derivation, leading to a high ratio (33-64%) of P27 incorporation in these cage-like structures. P27 kept its antigenicity after incorporation in ISCOMs, which induced, after iterative intubations by the oral route to groups of mice, a systemic IgG response, a local IgA response, and a local enhanced cellular response as demonstrated by lymphoproliferation of mesenteric lymph node cells upon in vitro stimulation with antigen. This immunization (120 micrograms in six oral doses at 2-day intervals) afforded mice a partial protection (60%) against a subsequent 400 oocyst challenge. The reduction in daily oocyst excretion was corroborated by significantly different weight losses between immunized and control mice on days 9 and 10 postinfection and the subsequent death of these control mice. These observations provide the first application of ISCOMs to parasitic intestinal diseases.