Detection and quantification of Duffy antigen on bovine red blood cell membranes using a polyclonal antibody

Abstract

Babesiosis is one of the most important diseases affecting livestock agriculture worldwide. Animals from the subspecies Bos taurus indicus are more resistant to babesiosis than those from Bos taurus taurus. The genera Babesia and Plasmodium are Apicomplexa hemoparasites and share features such as invasion of red blood cells (RBC). The glycoprotein Duffy is the only human erythrocyte receptor for Pasmodium vivax and a mutation which abolishes expression of this glycoprotein on erythrocyte surfaces is responsible for making the majority of people originating from the indigenous populations of West Africa resistant to P. vivax. The current work detected and quantified the Duffy antigen on Bos taurus indicus and Bos taurus taurus erythrocyte surfaces using a polyclonal antibody in order to investigate if differences in susceptibility to Babesia are due to different levels of Duffy antigen expression on the RBCs of these animals, as is known to be the case in human beings for interactions of Plasmodium vivax-Duffy antigen. ELISA tests showed that the antibody that was raised against Duffy antigens detected the presence of Duffy antigen in both subspecies and that the amount of this antigen on those erythrocyte membranes was similar. These results indicate that the greater resistance of B. taurus indicus to babesiosis cannot be explained by the absence or lower expression of Duffy antigen on RBC surfaces.

Principales herramientas moleculares empleadas en la ciencia animal

“…Los métodos tradicionales de diagnóstico, como la observación en frotis de sangre de hemoparásitos, constituyen la principal forma de análisis; sin embargo, estas técnicas presentan baja sensibilidad en fases subclínicas y crónicas de las enfermedades debido principalmente a las condiciones intracelulares del microorganismo (ANTONANGELO et al, 2012;DA SILVA et al, 2013) y a la capacidad de observación del personal de laboratorio. Por otro lado los ensayos inmunológicos como el Inmunoensayo Ligado a Enzimas (ELISA), Inmunofluorescencia Indirecta (IFI) y Inmunoaglutinación (IAI), presentan una mejor sensibilidad y son usados para detectar antígenos o anticuerpos específicos del o contra el microorganismo presente en los animales portadores, aunque con especificidad dependiente del antígeno utilizado (FERREIRA et al, 2007), pero poseen baja sensibilidad para detectar pequeñas concentraciones de antígenos o anticuerpos en sangre en periodos de ventana inmunológica o seroconversión.…”