Quijada L, Requena J M, Soto M, Alonso C
Centro de Biología Molecular Severo-Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
Immunol Lett. 1998 Oct;63(3):169-74. doi: 10.1016/s0165-2478(98)00071-6.
The 70-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) is a major target of the humoral immune response during Leishmania infections. In the present paper, it is shown that 84.6% of sera from mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) patients and 78.9% of sera from visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients reacted with the L. infantum Hsp70. The mapping of the antigenic determinants indicated that this protein is highly rich in linear B-epitopes. As the complete protein cannot be used for specific serodiagnosis of VL because it is also recognized by the sera from Chagas' disease patients, a search for specific epitopes recognized by leishmaniasis patients was undertaken. A 50-mer synthetic peptide, located in the most divergent region of the protein, was found to be recognized by a high percentage of leishmaniasis sera and not recognized by chagasic sera. Such a tool would be particularly useful for serodiagnosis of leishmaniasis in geographical areas where mixed infections with Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania occurs.
70 kDa热休克蛋白（Hsp70）是利什曼原虫感染期间体液免疫反应的主要靶点。本文表明，84.6%的皮肤黏膜利什曼病（MCL）患者血清和78.9%的内脏利什曼病（VL）患者血清与婴儿利什曼原虫Hsp70发生反应。抗原决定簇图谱显示该蛋白富含线性B表位。由于完整蛋白不能用于VL的特异性血清诊断，因为恰加斯病患者的血清也能识别它，因此开展了对利什曼病患者识别的特异性表位的研究。发现位于该蛋白最具差异区域的一个50聚体合成肽能被高比例的利什曼病血清识别，而不被恰加斯病血清识别。这种工具对于在同时发生克氏锥虫和利什曼原虫混合感染的地理区域进行利什曼病的血清诊断将特别有用。
