Adjuvant-enhanced antibody and cellular responses to recombinant FhSAP2 correlates with protection of mice to Fasciola hepatica
International Conference & Exhibition on Vaccines & Vaccination
22-24 Nov 2011 Philadelphia Airport Marriott, USA

Ana M. Espino and Fracheska Rivera

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

We recently reported the biochemical characterization of a novel Fasciola hepatica antigen termed FhSAP2, which has previously shown to elicit protection to F. hepatica infection in mice and rabbits when administered SC emulsifi ed in complete Freund�s adjuvant (CFA). Th e purpose of the current study was to ascertain whether FhSAP2 could also be protective when administer in less infl ammatory adjuvants like Montanide ISA 720 or QS21 (saponin- derivative) and to characterize the immune responses induced by these formulations. We used BALB/c mice, which received four SC injections two weeks apart of FhSAP2 emulsifi ed in ISA720 or QS21. Four weeks aft er the last injection animals received an oral challenge infection with 5 F. hepatica metacercariae and were necropsied 45-days aft er challenge. Th e FhSAP2-QS21 formulations reduced the fl uke burden in a 50% while reduction obtained with the FhSAP2-ISA720 formulation was 62.5%. Protection was associated to high levels of CD4 Th 1-mediate immune responses characterized by higher levels of IgG 2a than IgG 1 antibody as well as of vigorous lymphoproliferation, high IFNγ and TNFα and moderate IL-4 and IL-5 production. Th ese high cell-mediated immune responses correlated with the reduction in mortality, fl uke burden or liver damage in mice to the F. hepatica challenge infection. Th ese results were confi rmed by a proteomic analysis. Our results demonstrated that the protection induced by this protein is associated to a mechanism linked to the Th 1-immune responses and support FhSAP2 as a good vaccine candidate against F. hepatica in experimental models

Biography :

Ana M. Espino completed her Ph.D at the age of 35 years at the Institute of Tropical Medicine ?Pedro Kour? (IPK) of Havana, Cuba and performed 4-year postdoctoral studies at the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine of University of Puerto Rico. At present, she is the director of Immunology and Molecular Parasitology laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine. She has published more than 35 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of reputed scienti fi c journals.