Chimeric Epitope Vaccine from Multistage Antigens for Lymphatic Filariasis

Abstract

Lymphatic filariasis, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, affects more than 120 million people worldwide. Vaccination for filariasis by targeting different stages of the parasite will be a boon to the existing MDA efforts of WHO which required repeated administration of the drug to reduce the infection level and sustained transmission. Onset of a filaria-specific immune response achieved through antigen vaccines can act synergistically with these drugs to enhance the parasite killing. Multi-epitope vaccine approach has been proved to be successful against several parasitic diseases as it overcomes the limitations associated with the whole antigen vaccines. Earlier results from our group suggested the protective efficacy of multi-epitope vaccine comprising two immunodominant epitopes from Brugia malayi antioxidant thioredoxin (TRX), several epitopes from transglutaminase (TGA) and abundant larval transcript-2 (ALT-2). In this study, the prophylactic efficacy of the filarial epitope protein (FEP), a chimera of selective epitopes identified from our earlier study, was tested in a murine model (jird) of filariasis with L3 larvae. FEP conferred a significantly (P < 0.0001) high protection (69.5%) over the control in jirds. We also observed that the multiepitope recombinant construct (FEP) induces multiple types of protective immune responses, thus ensuring the successful elimination of the parasite; this poses FEP as a potential vaccine candidate.

Evaluation of Protective Immune Responses Induced by Recombinant TrxLp and ENO2 Proteins againstToxoplasma gondiiInfection in BALB/c Mice

“…The immunogenicity of thioredoxin and enolase proteins from several protozoa and helminths has been well-evaluated, and both proteins were considered as potential vaccine candidates against those pathogens' infection [ 24 , 25 ]. In the present study, mice immunized with rTgTrxLp and rTgENO2 proteins, either alone or in combination, induced strong humoral and cellular immune responses with significant longer survival time and lower brain cyst loadings after acute and chronic infection compared to that of the controls.…”

Cloning, expression and characterization of Brugia malayi abundant larval protein transcript-2 (BmALT-2) expressed in Pichia pastoris

“…Many filarial proteins including secreted larval acidic protein 1 from Onchocerca volvulus, an ALT-2 homologue, have been characterized [47]. A chimeric protein construct comprising thioredoxin, transglutaminase and abundant larval transcript-2 (ALT-2) showed enhanced immunological response [48]. The hyper responsiveness of ALT-2 is also well documented with its T-cell and B-cell-specific responses [49,50].…”

A Recombinant La Sota Vaccine Strain Expressing Multiple Epitopes of Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) Protects Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) Chickens against IBV and NDV Challenges

“…[22,23]. Thus, they have been broadly applied for a range of viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases [24][25][26]. The most important factors for designing a multi-epitope vaccine are predicting and screening the functional neutralizing B cell epitopes and species-restricted T cell epitopes [27,28].…”