Protective effect of intranasal immunization with Neospora caninum membrane antigens against murine neosporosis established through the gastrointestinal tract

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Pedro Ferreirinha (Author) Other; Joana Dias (Author) Other; Alexandra Correia (Author) ICBAS; Begona Perez Cabezas (Author) Other; Carlos Santos (Author) Other; Luzia Teixeira (Author) Other; Adilia Ribeiro (Author) Other; Antonio Rocha (Author) ICBAS; Manuel Vilanova (Author) ICBAS

Journal

Title: Immunology

Vol. 141 No. 2

Pages: 256-267

ISSN: 0019-2805

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 14 Citations

Scopus - 15 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Basic medicine

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-Q86

DOI: 10.1111/imm.12191

Abstract (EN): Neospora caninum is an Apicomplexa parasite that in the last two decades was acknowledged as the main pathogenic agent responsible for economic losses in the cattle industry. In the present study, the effectiveness of intranasal immunization with N.caninum membrane antigens plus CpG adjuvant was assessed in a murine model of intragastrically established neosporosis. Immunized mice presented a lower parasitic burden in the brain on infection with 5x10(7) tachyzoites, showing that significant protection was achieved by this immunization strategy. Intestinal IgA antibodies raised by immunization markedly agglutinated live N.caninum tachyzoites whereas previous opsonization with IgG antibodies purified from immunized mice sera reduced parasite survival within macrophage cells. Although an IgG1:IgG2a ratio <1 was detected in the immunized mice before and after infection, indicative of a predominant T helper type 1 immune response, no increased production of interferon- was detected in the spleen or mesenteric lymph nodes of the immunized mice. Altogether, these results show that mucosal immunization with N.caninum membrane proteins plus CpG adjuvant protect against intragastrically established neosporosis and indicate that parasite-specific mucosal and circulating antibodies have a protective role against this parasitic infection.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 12