Desenvolvimento de vacina recombinante contra a leptospirose: produção e avaliação do potencial imunoprotetor de quatro lipoproteínas

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a widespread zoonosis caused by spirochetes from genus Leptospira. The disease is considered a problem in both public health and veterinary areas, affecting mainly tropical and subtropical developing countries. In veterinarian medicine, leptospirosis is an important disease for both clinic and production sectors due to the public health risks, reproductive failures and death, culminating in considerable economic losses for the area. Animal vaccination is taken as a prevention measure, however the acquired protection by the vaccines is, in most cases, weak and allows the spreading of the disease. The outer membrane antigens seems to be the best alternative to substitute the currently available vaccines, however, after several studies, none of them presented satisfactory results. The aim of the present work was the production and evaluation of four recombinant antigens in order to elicit broad spectrum protection in hamster, the susceptible experimental model (Mesocricetus auratus). An in silico analysis in L. interrogans serogroup icterohaemorrhagie serovar Copenhageni strain FIOCRUZ L1-130 was run in order to identify potential genes for subunit vaccine development. Four genes were selected, amplified, cloned into vectors and expressed in Escherichia coli: lic10260, lic10365, lic11207, lic11360. These gene products are potential outer membrane lipoproteins and were amplified from L. borgpeterseni serugroup Ballum strain 4E. The cloning procedures resulted in the recombinant vectors pAE/LIC10260, pAE/LIC10365, pAE/LIC11207 and pAE/LIC11360 and its purified products were inoculated in hamsters and their humoral response was evaluated per Enzyme-linked Immunossorbent Assay (ELISA). It was possible to verify that at least one of the vaccinal preparations for each protein was able to induce statistically significant humoral response (p < 0.05). The four obtained proteins showed immunogenic response, making them promising recombinant antigens for use against leptospirosis.