Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Henrique Roman Ramos
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ) |
| Defense date: | 2009-06-15 |
| Examining board members: |
Paulo Lee Ho;
Maria Júlia Manso Alves;
Vanderlei Rodrigues;
Sérgio Verjovski Almeida;
Gerhard Wunderlich
|
| Advisor: | Paulo Lee Ho |
| Abstract | |
Introduction: developing a vaccine against schistosomiasis would be an important advance on the control of this chronic and debilitating disease which afflicts millions of people worldwide. Herein we describe the use of the non-toxic B subunit of cholera toxin (CTB) genetically fused to Sm14 - a fatty-acid binding protein from Schistosoma mansoni - as an attempt to the development of an antischistosomiasis vaccine. Methods: recombinant proteins were expressed on a prokaryotic system, purified by different chromatographic methods and both immunochemically and spectroscopically characterized. Immunization experiments were made on females BALB/c mice and vaccines efficacy was assessed by analyzing the worm-burden after challenge infection with S. mansoni cercariae and by analyzing its effect on the hepatic granulomatous reactions around trapped eggs. Results: subcutaneous administration of Sm14 reduced in 27% the worm burden on animals. On the other hand, intranasally vaccination only displayed a statistically significant reduction when CTB was added to the formulation. Furthermore, coadministrating CTB and Sm14 reduces in 30% the area of hepatic granulomas. Conclusion: the use of CTB may be an important tool for mucosal adjuvanticity; however it did not provide, together with Sm14, satisfactory levels of protection on a murine model for Schistosomiasis infection. (AU) | |