title: The humoral immune response to the kinetoplastid membrane protein-11 in patients with American leishmaniasis and Chagas disease: prevalence of IgG subclasses and mapping of epitopes.
abstract: The kinetoplastid membrane protein-11 (KMP-11) is a major target of the humoral immune response during Leishmania-infections. The majority of sera from visceral leishmaniasis, mucocutaneous leishmaniasis and even some cutaneous leishmaniasis patients contain detectable IgG antibodies against KMP-11. We also provide evidence that this protein may act as a potent antigen in T. cruzi infections, since most Chagas sera show immunological cross-reactivity. Therefore, KMP-11 cannot be used as a specific diagnostical tool for the serodiagnosis of leishmaniasis in those regions where both, Leishmania and T. cruzi infections overlap geographically. When analyzing the subclass specificity of the antibody response to KMP-11 we observed the following order of reactivity: IgG1 > > IgG3 > IgG2 > IgG4, which is similiar to that seen in crude parasite extract. The mapping of antigenic determinants by using synthetic 20-mer peptides revealed the existence of predominantly conformational epitopes in leishmaniasis, while 50% of sera from Chagas patients reacted with a particular KMP-11 peptide. These results therefore suggest the presence of disease-specific B-cell epitopes.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Estudio y Control de Enfermedades Tropicales, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trujillo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Vélez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berberich
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D001938:Brazil; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification; D007132:Immunoglobulin Isotypes / Q000097:blood; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000276:immunology*; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007132:Immunoglobulin Isotypes; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D010455:Peptides; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C090009:kinetoplastid membrane protein 11, Leishmania donovani