Submitted to: American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 19, 2004
Publication Date: July 24, 2004
Citation: Tuo, W., Fetterer, R.H., Jenkins, M.C., Dubey, J.P. 2004. Functional characterization of hplc-fractionated neospora caninum proteins. American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists p. 123.
Technical Abstract:
Neospora caninum is an apicoplexan parasite that causes abortion in cattle. The objective of this study was to identify immunodominant T helper cell antigens (Ag) that may be used as vaccine candidates. N. caninum-specific T helper cell lines were established from peripheral blood lymphocytes of infected Holstein cows and used to define antigenicity of the N. caninum proteins fractionated by anion exchange chromatography using HPLC. The results showed that proteins in HPLC Fractions l through 3 had low or undetectable T cell-stimulating activity, whereas proteins in Fractions 4 through 6 had high stimulator activity Fraction 5 contained the highest antigenic activity detected by all T cell lines. Western blod analysis showed that Fraction 5 contained 8-10 distinctive N. caninum protein bands recognized by the rabbit and bovine antisera against N caninum tachyzoites (NC-1 stain). These results suggest that N. caninum proteins that highly stimulated T helper cell proliferatio and cytokine production may be potential candidates of a N. caninum vaccine. Research in progress includes purification ad identification of the T cell stimulatng N. caninum proteins using proteomics technologies.
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