title: Intranasal vaccination with extracellular serine proteases of Leishmania amazonensis confers protective immunity to BALB/c mice against infection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previously, we demonstrated that unlike subcutaneous or intramuscular vaccination, intranasal vaccination of BALB/c mice with whole Leishmania amazonensis antigens leads to protection against cutaneous leishmaniasis. Here, the role of parasite serine proteases in the protective immunity was investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serine Proteases were partially purified from both soluble (LaSP-Sol) and extracellular (LaSP-Ex) Leishmania amazonensis promastigote extracts by aprotinin-agarose chromatography. BALB/c mice were intranasally immunized with LaSP-Sol and LaSP-Ex prior to infection with L. amazonensis. LaSP-Ex but not LaSP-Sol vaccination led to significantly smaller lesions and parasite burdens as compared with non-vaccinated controls. Protection was accompanied by systemic Th1 polarization with increased IFN-γ and decreased IL-4 and IL-10 splenic production. Likewise, increased production of IFN-γ, IL-12 and IL-4 concomitant with decreased TGF-β and TNF-α was locally observed in the infected footpad.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study indicates that extracellular serine proteases of L. amazonensis are strong candidates for a more defined intranasal vaccine against cutaneous leishmaniasis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. herbert@biof.ufrj.br.
authors.forename: Herbert Leonel
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: de Matos Guedes
authors.forename: Beatriz Lilian
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: da Silva Costa
authors.forename: Suzana Passos
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.forename: Daniel Cláudio
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Gomes
authors.forename: Joshua Daniel
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Nosanchuk
authors.forename: Salvatore Giovanni
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: De Simone
authors.forename: Bartira
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rossi-Bergmann
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D007894:Leishmania mexicana / Q000201:enzymology / Q000276:immunology*; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000517:prevention & control*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D016052:Protozoan Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D057057:Serine Proteases / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D016207:Cytokines; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D016052:Protozoan Vaccines; D057057:Serine Proteases