title: Identification of a Trypanosoma cruzi antigenic epitope implicated in the infectivity of fibroblast LLC-MK2 cells.
abstract: In the present paper we describe the identification of an antigenic epitope that appears to be associated with the surface membrane of the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, probably implicated in infectivity. Anti-TcMe antibodies inhibited the infectivity of fibroblast LLC-MK2 cells by 34% relative to a preimmune serum. The epitope was specifically recognized by 55% of the sera from 80 chagasic patients. The anti-TcMe antibody immunoprecipitated proteins of about 60 and 40 kDa from epimastigote and cell-culture trypomastigote forms, respectively. It is likely that the 60- and 40-kDa proteins are processed from higher-molecular-weight precursors, since the antibody immunoprecipitated protein fractions in the range of 115-150 kDa from in vitro translation products of poly A+ RNA.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular, Instituto de Parasitologia y Biomedicina, López Neyra, CSIC, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Puertas
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marañón
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Patarroyo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: López
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology*; D002460:Cell Line; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011817:Rabbits; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D000939:Epitopes