9 research outputs found
Immunogenicity and Efficacy of Single Antigen Gp63, Polytope and PolytopeHSP70 DNA Vaccines against Visceral Leishmaniasis in Experimental Mouse Model
Polytope approach of genetic immunization is a promising strategy for the
prevention of infectious disease as it is capable of generating effective cell
mediated immunity by delivering the T cell epitopes assembled in series.
Leishmaniasis is a significant world wide health problem for which no vaccine
exists. In this study we have compared immunogenicity and efficacy of three
types of DNA vaccines: single antigen Gp63 (Gp63/pcDNA), polytope (Poly/pcDNA)
and Polytope fused with hsp70 (Poly/hsp/pcDNA) against visceral leishmaniasis in
susceptible BALB/c mice. Mice vaccinated with these plasmids generated strong
Th1 immune response as seen by dominating IFN-γ over IL-10 cytokine.
Interestingly, cytotoxic responses generated by polytope DNA plasmid fused with
hsp70 of Leishmania donovani were significantly higher when
compared to polytope and single antigen Gp63 vaccine. Challenge studies revealed
that the parasite load in liver and spleen was significantly lower with
Poly/hsp/pcDNA vaccination compared to other vaccines. Therefore, our study
indicates that polytope DNA vaccine is a feasible, practical and effective
approach for visceral leishmaniasis