Immunization with Toxoplasma gondii aspartic protease 3 increases survival time of infected mice

摘要

Highlights ? Bioinformatics is a powerful tool for predicting antigenic epitopes on proteins. ? TgASP3 has excellent B-cell epitopes and potential Th-cell epitopes. ? TgASP3 gene vaccine can elicit an immune response and provide partial protection. Abstract Aspartic proteases in the Toxoplasma gondii , called TgASP1, 2, 3, and 5, play essential roles in the life cycle. In a previous study, we have demonstrated that TgASP1 is an antigen that prolongs survival time of infected mice. As an in-depth study, we have investigated the protective immunity of TgSAP3. A bioinformatic analysis was used to predict the linear B-cell epitopes and potential Th-cell epitopes on TgASP3, the results suggested that it has a large number of excellent epitopes. Mice were inoculated with a recombinant eukaryotic expression vector to evaluate the immune protection against an infection with the virulent RH strain of T. gondii . The enhanced immune response and increased survival time (up to 18 days) were observed for vaccinated mice, showing that the TgASP3 antigen can provides partial protection.