Immunogenicity of Leishmania Donavani Centrin-3 Vaccines

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic protozoal disease affecting humans and animals with phlebotomine sand flies as intermediate vectors. There is no effective vaccine in use against this parasite and production relies on finding potent immunogenic antigens with long lasting memory response. As part of searching for new Leishmania antigens of a potential vaccine application, the immunogenicity of L. donovani centrin-3 (Ldcen-3) was investigated in a Balb/c model. Ldcen-3 is a calcium binding protein that has been shown to be involved in duplication and segregation of the centrosome in higher and lower eukaryotes. The Ldcen-3 gene was cloned in various vectors and coated on gold particles for gene gun immunisation. Significant protection was induced by immunisation with 1μg DNA of pcDNA3.1-Ldcen-3 or pCRT7/CT-TOPO-Ldcen-3 constructs. Protection against challenge with live parasite was vector dependent where better protection was induced by pCRT7/CT-TOPO-Ldcen-3. Splenocytes from Balb/c mice immunised with pcDNA3.1-Ldcen-3 or pCRT7/CT-TOPO-Ldcen-3 had a potent CTL response against DC targets loaded with or tumour cells transfected with Ldcen-3 plasmid construct.