The identification and characterization of antigens that elicit human T cell responses is an important step toward understanding of Leishmania major infection and ultimately in the development of a vaccine. Micropreparative SDS-PAGE followed by electrotransfer to a PVDF membrane and elution of proteins from the PVDF, was used to separate 2 novel proteins from L. major promastigotes, which can induce antibodies of the IgG2a isotype in mice and also are recognized by antisera of recovered human cutaneous leishmaniasis subjects. Fractionation of the crude extract of L. major revealed that all detectable proteins of interest were present within the soluble Leishmania antigens (SLA). Quantitation of these proteins showed that their expression in promastigotes is relatively very low. Considering the molecular weight, immunoreactivity, chromatographic and electrophoretic behavior in reducing and non-reducing conditions, these proteins are probably 2 isoforms of a single protein. A digest of these proteins was resolved on Tricine-SDS-PAGE and immunoreactive fragments were identified by human sera. Two immunoreactive fragments (36.4 and 34.8 kDa) were only generated by endoproteinase Glu-C treatment. These immunoreactive fragments or their parent molecules may be ideal candidates for incorporation in a cocktail vaccine against cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Animals ; Antigens, Protozoan/*chemistry/*isolation & purification ; Blotting, Western ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel/methods ; Humans ; Leishmania major/growth & development/*immunology ; Protein Isoforms/chemistry/isolation & purification

For treating Leishmania major infection in BALB/c mice, we used thalidomide in conjunction with glucantime. Groups of mice were challenged with 5 x 10(3) metacyclic promastigotes of L. major subcutaneously. A week after the challenge, drug treatment was started and continued for 12 days. Thalidomide was orally administrated 30 mg/kg/day and glucantime was administrated intraperitoneally (200 mg/kg/day). It was shown that the combined therapy is more effective than single therapies with each one of the drugs since the foot pad swelling in the group of mice received thalidomide and glucantime was significantly decreased (0.9 +/- 0.2 mm) compared to mice treated with either glucantime, thalidomide, or carrier alone (1.2 +/- 0.25, 1.4 +/- 0.3, and 1.7 +/- 0.27 mm, respectively). Cytokine study showed that the effect of thalidomide was not dependent on IL-12; however, it up-regulated IFN-gamma and down-regulated IL-10 production. Conclusively, thalidomide seems promising as a conjunctive therapy with antimony in murine model of visceral leishmaniasis.
Time Factors ; Thalidomide/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Organometallic Compounds/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice ; Meglumine/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Leishmaniasis, Visceral/*drug therapy/immunology ; Leishmania major/*drug effects ; Interleukin-12/analysis/biosynthesis ; Interleukin-10/analysis/biosynthesis ; Interferon Type II/analysis/biosynthesis/drug effects ; Immunosuppressive Agents/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Female ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Disease Progression ; Disease Models, Animal ; Cells, Cultured ; Antiprotozoal Agents/pharmacology/*therapeutic use ; Animals

Experimental murine models with high, intermediate and low levels of genetically based susceptibility to Leishmania major infection reproduce almost entire spectrum of clinical manifestations of the human disease. There are increasing non-comparative studies on immune responses against isolated antigens of L. major in different murine strains. The aim of the present study was to find out whether there is an antigen that can induce protective immune response in resistant and susceptible murine strains. To do that, crude antigenic extract of procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes of L. major was prepared and subjected to SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. Western-blotting was used to search for antigen(s) capable of raising high antibody level of IgG2a versus IgG1 in the sera of both infected resistant and susceptible strains. Two novel antigens from metacyclic promastigotes of L. major (140 and 152 kDa) were potentially able to induce specific dominant IgG2a responses in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. The 2 antigens also reacted with IgG antibody of cutaneous leishmaniasis patients. We confirm that 140 and 152 kDa proteins of L. major promastigotes are inducing IgG production in mice and humans.
Protozoan Proteins/immunology/*isolation & purification ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice ; Life Cycle Stages/immunology ; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous/immunology ; Leishmania major/*immunology ; Immunoglobulin G/*biosynthesis/blood ; Humans ; Female ; Blotting, Western/methods ; Antigens, Protozoan/immunology/*isolation & purification ; Animals

Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania cause a number of important human diseases. One of the key determinants of parasite infectivity and survival is the surface glycoconjugate lipophosphoglycan (LPG). In addition, LPG is shown to be useful as a transmission blocking vaccine. Since culture supernatant of parasite promastigotes is a good source of LPG, we made attempts to characterize functions of the culture supernatant, and membrane LPG isolated from metacyclic promastigotes of Leishmania major. The purification scheme included anion-exchange chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography and cold methanol precipitation. The purity of supernatant LPG (sLPG) and membrane LPG (mLPG) was determined by SDS-PAGE and thin layer chromatography. The effect of mLPG and sLPG on nitric oxide (NO) production by murine macrophages cell line (J774.1A) was studied. Both sLPG and mLPG induced NO production in a dose dependent manner but sLPG induced significantly higher amount of NO than mLPG. Our results show that sLPG is able to promote NO production by murine macrophages.
Nitric Oxide/analysis/*biosynthesis ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice ; Macrophages/*drug effects/metabolism/parasitology ; Leishmania major/chemistry/pathogenicity/*physiology ; Glycosphingolipids/isolation & purification/*pharmacology ; Endotoxins/analysis ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Culture Media ; Chromatography, Thin Layer/methods ; Cell Membrane/chemistry ; Cell Line ; Animals