Feb 10, 2003 - Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center ... improving education and sanitation, molluscicide treatment.
INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, July 2003, p. 3844–3851 0019-9567/03/$08.00⫹0 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.71.7.3844–3851.2003 Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Vol. 71, No. 7
Induction of Protective Immunity against Schistosoma mansoni via DNA Priming and Boosting with the Large Subunit of Calpain (Sm-p80): Adjuvant Effects of Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor and Interleukin-4 Afzal A. Siddiqui,1,2* Troy Phillips,1 Hugues Charest,3 Ron B. Podesta,4 Martha L. Quinlin,1 Justin R. Pinkston,1 Jenny D. Lloyd,1 Michelle Paz,1 Rachael M. Villalovos,1 and Janet Pompa1 Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center,1 and Veterans Affairs Health Care System,2 Amarillo, Texas 79106, and Laboratoire de Sante´ Publique du Que´bec, Programme de Biologie Mole´culaire, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que´bec,3 and Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London,4 Canada Received 10 February 2003/Returned for modification 21 April 2003/Accepted 23 April 2003
Considerable morbidity and mortality result from schistosomiasis, an affliction affecting an estimated 200 million people. Although schistosomicidal drugs and other control measures (including public hygiene and snail control) exist, the advent of an efficacious vaccine remains the most potentially powerful means for controlling this disease. We have targeted a vaccine candidate (large subunit of calpain, Sm-p80) because of its consistent immunogenicity, protective potential, and integral role in surface membrane biogenesis of schistosomes. Since surface membrane renewal appears to be one of the major phenomena employed by schistosomes to evade the host’s immune system; an immune response directed against Sm-p80 should render the parasite susceptible to immune clearance from the host by both providing a focus of attack and by potentially impairing the membrane repair process. In the present study, we have employed DNA immunization protocols using Sm-p80 with plasmids encoding granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). Sm-p80 by itself provided 39% protection (P ⴝ
