Abstract
Microneme protein 8 (MIC8) is considered a new essential invasion factor in Toxoplasma gondii. In the present study, a deoxyribonucleic acid vaccine expressing MIC8 of T. gondii was constructed and the immune response it induced in Kunming mice was evaluated. The gene sequence encoding MIC8 was inserted into the eukaryotic expression vector pVAX I, and the pVAX-MIC8 expression plasmid was constructed, and the plasmid diluted with PBS to l00 mg/100 µl was injected into the Kunming mice muscularly. Levels of IgG antibody, gamma-interferon (IFN-γ), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-4, and interleukin-10 were detected. The mice were challenged with tachyzoites of the virulent T. gondii RH strain at the 14th day after the last immunization to observe the survival time. The high level of IFN-γ, IL-2, and IgG antibody indicated that mice vaccinated with recombinant pVAX-MIC8 plasmid could elicit strong cellular and humoral immune responses and showed a significantly increased survival time (10.3 ± 0.9 days) compared with control mice which died within 5 days of challenge infection. These data demonstrate that the T. gondii MIC8 is a potential vaccine candidate against toxoplasmosis.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported, in part, by grants from the National Special Research Programs for Non-Profit Trades (Agriculture) (Grant No. 200803017), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (Grant No. IRT0723), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 9451064201003715), the State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Key Research Programs in Natural Sciences for Institutions of Higher Education in Guangdong Province (Grant No. 06Z004), and the President's Funds of South China Agricultural University (Grant No. 2009K034). The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.
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M. M. Liu and Z. G. Yuan contributed equally to this work.
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Liu, M.M., Yuan, Z.G., Peng, G.H. et al. Toxoplasma gondii microneme protein 8 (MIC8) is a potential vaccine candidate against toxoplasmosis. Parasitol Res 106, 1079–1084 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1742-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-1742-0