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An aspartate aminotransferase of Wolbachia endobacteria from Onchocerca volvulus is recognized by IgG1 antibodies from residents of endemic areas

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Abstract

Wolbachia are intracellular α-proteobacteria, closely related to Rickettsia, that infect various arthropods and filarial parasites. In the present study, the cDNA encoding the aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT) of Wolbachia from the human pathogenic filarial parasite Onchocerca volvulus (Ov-WolAspAT) was identified. At the amino acid level, the identity of the Ov-WolAspAT was 56% to Rickettsia prowazekii AspAT and 54% to the AspAT of the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, but the highest degree of identity was found to the putative AspAT of Wolbachia from Brugia malayi and Drosophila melanogaster (85%). All of these bacterial AspATs are members of the AspAT subclass Ib. A 35 kDa fragment of the Ov-WolAspAT was expressed in Escherichia coli, and immunolocalization using polyclonal antibodies against this antigen revealed that Ov-WolAspAT is present in a considerable proportion of the Wolbachia from O. volvulus, as well as in the endobacteria of several other filarial parasites. Western blot analysis using recombinant Ov-WolAspAT as antigen showed that IgG1 antibodies were present in 70 (51%) individuals living in areas endemic for O. volvulus, B. malayi or Wuchereria bancrofti and no IgG4 or IgE antibodies were found. Among 40 sera of persons from Uganda and Liberia who were putatively not infected with human filarial parasites, 11 (28%) individuals presented IgG1 antibodies, while none of the 33 sera from healthy Europeans and none of the 14 sera from patients with proven Rickettsia or Brucella infections reacted with the antigen. These results also show that an intracellular protein of Wolbachia endobacteria (WolAspAT) acts as antigen in human filariasis.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank I. Albrecht for expert technical assistance. For supplying patients' sera and parasite material, we thank G. Bretzel, T. Supali, A. Hoerauf, D.B. Copeman, M. Omar, P. Racz, A. Renz, A. Plenge-Bönig and H. Schulz-Key. We are indebted to S.A. Williams and the members of the Filarial Genome Project for making data on filarial genomes public. Preliminary sequence data on Drosophila WolAspAT was obtained from the Institute for Genomic Research website (http:/tigrblast.tigr.org/ufmg/). P. Fischer was supported by the scholarship program "Infectiology" of the German "Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung". New nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper are available in the GenBank database under the accession numbers AF411604, AF412405 and AF412406.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Parasitology Section, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359, Hamburg, Germany

    Peter Fischer, Insa Bonow, Dietrich W. Büttner & Eva Liebau

  2. New England Biolabs, 32 Tozer Road, Beverly , MA 01915, USA

    Ibrahim H. Kamal

  3. Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

    Ibrahim H. Kamal

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  1. Peter Fischer
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Correspondence to Peter Fischer.

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Fischer, P., Bonow, I., Büttner, D.W. et al. An aspartate aminotransferase of Wolbachia endobacteria from Onchocerca volvulus is recognized by IgG1 antibodies from residents of endemic areas. Parasitol Res 90, 38–47 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-002-0813-2

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