|
|
Antigens in the sandfly saliva and antibody response of the bitten hosts
Drahota, Jan ; Volf, Petr (advisor) ; Kopecký, Jan (referee) ; Soares Maia, Carla Alexandra (referee)
Leishmaniases are neglected diseases occurring mainly in developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, these diseases are also present in Europe and North America and due to climate changes and human activities they spread to higher latitudes and altitudes. In these theses, we review the current information about the spread of leishmaniases, its vectors and reservoirs in Europe. The risk of Leishmania transmission is closely connected with the host-vector contact. Recently, immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody response to sandfly saliva has been proven as a reliable marker of the host exposure. However, sandfly saliva is a complex mixture of components with different chemical and antigenic properties and it is laborious and expensive to acquire. Therefore, we have focused on preparation of major salivary antigens in the form of recombinant proteins that would be capable to replace the saliva in immunological screenings. We choose two European vectors, Phlebotomus (P.) papatasi and Phlebotomus (P.) perniciosus and identified their major salivary antigens by western blotting and mass spectrometry. We expressed these proteins in the bacterial system and test their antigenicity using ELISA and western blotting with sera of mice and dogs bitten by these sand fly species. The most promising...
|
guest ::
