Taenia solium cysticercosis is a parasitic disease frequently affecting human health and the pig industry in many developing countries. A synthetic peptide vaccine (designated S3Pvac) against porcine cysticercosis has been developed previously as an aid to interrupt transmission and has been shown to be effective. The results of the present study support the effectiveness of the vaccine under endemic field conditions. However, given the time-frame of the vaccination trial, no changes in the local levels of transmission were detectable before and after vaccination using sentinel pigs. Thus, this investigation shows the limited usefulness of single vaccination as the sole means of interrupting Taenia solium transmission in an endemic region.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate DNA vaccination in cysticercosis prevention by using a Taenia crassiceps cDNA of a recombinant antigen (KETc7) that has been reported as protective against murine cysticercosis. The KETc7 cDNA was cloned into the pcDNA3 plasmid alone or with the betaglycan signal peptide sequence (pTc-7 and pTc-sp7, respectively). Positive expression of the pTc-sp7 product was confirmed by transfection of C33 cells and immunofluorescence using sera of mice infected with T. crassiceps. Immunization of mice with 3 injections of pTc-sp7 DNA at the higher dose (200 microg) was the most effective to induce antibody with or without bupivacaine. Immunization with pTc-sp7 induced protection against challenge with T. crassiceps cysticerci as successfully as previously observed with the KETc7 recombinant protein. Antibodies elicited by DNA immunization with pTc-sp7 specifically reacted with the native protein of 56 kDa previously reported, which is immunolocalized in the tegument of T. crassiceps cysticerci. The 56-kDa antigen is also present in Taenia solium oncospheres, cysticerci, and adult tissue. The protection induced in DNA-immunized mice and the observation that the injected plasmid remains as an episomic form within muscle cells, encouraged us to continue testing this procedure to prevent T. solium cysticercosis.
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