title: Determination of immunoreactive proteins of Babesia ovis.
abstract: Babesia ovis, an intraerythrocytic protozoan parasite transmitted by ticks, causes severe infections in sheep in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Parasite-specific immunoreactive proteins have been used as antigen in the serological diagnosis of babesiosis. There is no study about determination of B. ovis-specific proteins in sheep. This study was planned to determine the immunoreactive proteins of B. ovis. In this study, two splenectomized lambs, and twelve seropositive sheep and five seronegative lambs for anti-B. ovis antibodies were used as materials. Infected blood samples at 5% of parasitemia from the two splenectomized lambs experimentally infected with a virulent B. ovis field strain were analyzed for B. ovis-specific proteins by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blotting (WB). B. ovis-specific five major proteins were recognized by anti-B. ovis serum but not by healthy sheep serum. They were of approximate molecular weights 154, 109, 77, 58, and 38 kDa. As the control samples, protein profiles of the blood extracts of two lambs before splenectomy operation were also blotted with the immune sera, but none of the five proteins was detected. These proteins were also immunoblotted with heterologous positive and negative sheep sera. All of twelve positive sera recognized the 109 kDa protein with 100 percent sensitivity. The 77 kDa protein reacted in 11 of 12 sera (91.6%). The sensitivities of the other 3 proteins ranged between 83.3% and 25%. The five protein bands immunoblotted with sera of the 5 negative lambs did not give any positive reaction. The results of this study revealed the presence of proteins recognized by the serum antibodies of experimentally and naturally infected sheep with B. ovis. Additional studies on the purification of these proteins and on subsequently their utilization in a serodiagnostic method are required to improve the serological diagnosis of ovine babesiosis.
authors.affiliation: Selcuk University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Parasitology, Konya, Turkey. Electronic address: fsevinc@selcuk.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Ferda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sevinc
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guler
authors.forename: Mutlu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sevinc
authors.forename: Ozlem Derinbay
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Ekici
authors.forename: Nermin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Isik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology*; D001403:Babesia / Q000276:immunology*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan
keywords: Babesia ovis; Immunoreactive proteins; SDS-PAGE; Western Blotting