title: The vaccination potential of EMY162 antigen against Echinococcus multilocularis infection.
abstract: Alveolar echinococcosis is caused by infection with the larval stage of Echinococcus multilocularis. We recently identified a cDNA clone, designated as emy162, that encodes a putative secreted protein. EMY162 shares structural features with the EM95 antigen, which is a host-protective antigen. The amino acid sequence of EMY162 shows 31.4% identity to EM95 whereas these antigens are distinguishable with respect to their predicted secondary structure and antigenicity on Western blot analysis. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the gene expression of emy162 was significantly higher than that of em95 at each life-cycle stage. Recombinant EMY162 antigen induced a significant level of host-protection (74.3%) in experimental infection with E. multilocularis eggs in mice. Notably, recombinant EMY162 antigen showed significant reactivity to the sera from alveolar echinococcosis patients. These results may help in the development of a practical vaccine to reduce the level of alveolar echinococcosis in humans.
authors.affiliation: Hokkaido Institute of Public Health, N19, W12, Kita-Ku, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kouguchi
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Yoshinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.forename: Yuzaburo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oku
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kinpei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yagi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004443:Echinococcosis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D048210:Echinococcus multilocularis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D000947:Antigens, Helminth; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins