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Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00433-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Kinesin Motor Domain of Leishmania Donovani as future vaccine candidate

Department of Laboratory Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi-110029, India; Immunology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi-110067, India

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sarman_singh{at}yahoo.com.

	Abstract

Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is one of the important parasitic diseases placing approximately 350 million people at risk. Due to non-availability of an ideal drug, development of a safe, effective and affordable vaccine could be a solution for control and prevention of this disease. The present study was carried out to examine the immunological potential of kinesin protein from the microtubule locus of Leishmania donovani as suitable vaccine candidate. In-silico analysis of this region revealed clusters of MHC-I & II binding epitopes in its motor domain region. A recombinant protein was expressed from this region and named as rLvacc. The antigenicity and immunogenicity studies of this protein by western blot analysis revealed that rLvacc is strongly recognized by sera from acute VL patients. En route for its immunogenicity, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from cured VL patients were separated and lymphocyte proliferation assay was carried out in presence of rLvacc. After lymphocyte proliferation, the pooled culture supernatant was assayed for anti- rLvacc antibody titers using ELISA. The results showed that IgG2 subtype antibodies were predominant while IgG1 subtype antibodies were produced in very low titers. On the basis of these ex-vivo preliminary findings, its immunogenicity was studied in Balb/C mice. Vaccination with the DNA construct generated good cellular immune response with significant increase in IFN- and IL-2 cytokines levels (Th-1), but no increase in IL-4 levels (Th-2). Taken together, our findings suggest that kinesin motor domain region of L. donovani could be a potential vaccine candidate against visceral leishmaniasis.