A HYBRID CELL VACCINE AGAINST LEISHMANIASIS KALA-AZAR

摘要

The present invention provides a hybrid cell vaccine against Leishmaniasis comprising of syngeneic macrophage with a dominant Leishmania antigen-KMP-11 electrofused with allogenic Dendritic Cell. Hybrid cell vaccination approach with dendritic cells has been widely used successfully in tumor models only. By devising a novel strategy of transfecting syngeneic macrophage cell line from BALB/c mice with a dominant Leishmania antigen-KMP-11 and electrofusing with allogenic DC from C57BLJ6, the inventors obtained a complete clearance of splenic and hepatic parasite burden in late stage L. donovani infection in genetically susceptible BALB/c mice. Curative response resulted from a high KMP-11 specific MHC class I restricted CD8*CTL response. This is the first study that realized the potential of hybrid cell vaccine in the field of infectious disease and clearly shows the contribution of Th2 cytokine response in conferring protection to Leishmania donovani infection in experimental VL model.