Evaluation of gene products encoded in L. infantum parasites transfected with the plasmids pFL-AMA-AVITOX and pFL-AMA-TRYPTOX after the differentiation process

• Grant number: 19/06322-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: May 10, 2019
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Protozoology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Selma Giorgio
• Grantee: NAHIARA ESTEVES ZORGI
• Supervisor: Jose Maria Requena
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/11539-6 - Study of immunoprotective capacity induced by infection with "suicide" strains of Leishmania infantum in mice, BP.PD

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (LV) is a serious parasitic disease caused by infection with Leishmania infantum or Leishmania donovani. LV distributed worldwide and the infection may be silent, have small clinical manifestations, severe or even lethal. Current therapy with antimonials or amphotericin is effective in most cases of VL. However, the disease maintains approximately 7% lethality in Brazil, even among patients under treatment. Currently there is no vaccine available for human leishmaniosis, therefore, vaccine development is highly desirable and a more practical and efficient tool for disease control in both humans and animals, especially dogs. One of the difficulties in the development of vaccines is the use of adjuvants, with the use of attenuated parasites could be an alternative for new immunogens without the need of the adjuvant. Our group has developed a plasmid pFL-AMA, a vector expressing the amastine protein which is unique to the amastigote phase. When sequences encoding toxic proteins are inserted into the plasmid, as an active form of bovine trypsin or egg avidin, the parasites transfected with recombinant plasmids die after complete differentiation into amastigote. In this work we intend to evaluate in detail the toxic-gene expression encoded in the plasmids pFL-AMA-AVITOX and pFL-AMA-TRYPTOX after the process of differentiation of the parasites.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ZORGI, NAHIARA ESTEVES; ARRUDA, LEONARDO V.; PALADINE, IZADORA; ROQUE, GUILHERME A. S.; ARAUJO, THALITA F.; BROCCHI, MARCELO; BARRAL, MANOEL; SANCHIZ, AFRICA; MARIA REQUENA, JOSE; ABANADES, DANIEL R.; et al. Leishmania infantum transfected with toxic plasmid induces protection in mice infected with wild type L. infantum or L. amazonensis. Molecular Immunology, v. 127, p. 95-106, NOV 2020. (18/23302-6, 19/06322-6, 15/23767-0, 16/11539-6)