title: Humoral immune responses among mucosal and cutaneous leishmaniasis patients caused by Leishmania braziliensis.
abstract: Mucosal leishmaniasis is arguably the most morbid sequelae of cutaneous leishmaniasis. The importance of early diagnosis for effective therapy, coupled with the difficulty of diagnosing the disease parasitologically, prompted this investigation of humoral immune markers of mucosal disease. Promastigote soluble antigens of Leishmania braziliensis, isolated from cutaneous and mucosal lesions, were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; antigens were identified by immunoblotting with parasite-specific IgG antibody-positive sera of patients with mucosal disease (n = 18) and cutaneous disease (n = 23). For antigens of the cutaneous parasite WR 2095, mucosal sera generally reacted intensely to antigens of 75, 66, and 45 kDa and weakly to 48-50-kDa antigens, whereas cutaneous sera generally detected weakly the first 3 antigens and intensely the latter doublet. The data suggest that the transition from the cutaneous antigenic profile to a mucosal antigenic profile could be used to predict mucosal disease in approximately half of mucosal patients. An additional finding was that antibodies present in the sera of patients with mucosal disease labeled a 66-kDa peptide of normal human lip mucosa more intensely than did cutaneous sera. Autoimmune processes stimulated by the reaction of IgG, originally directed against the 66-kDa of L. braziliensis, to the 66-kDa antigen of mucosal tissue may contribute to the clinical presentation of mucosal leishmaniasis.
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Doenças Infecciosas da Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Valli
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Passos
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dietze
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Callahan
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grogl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology; D015153:Blotting, Western; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007892:Leishmania braziliensis / Q000276:immunology*; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000276:immunology*; D007897:Leishmaniasis, Mucocutaneous / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D007074:Immunoglobulin G