Multi-epitope schistosome vaccine candidates tested for protective immunogenicity in mice

Abstract

The major challenge in the development of anti-schistosome vaccines is to use defined antigens to stimulate an appropriate immune response that leads to resistance. Several promising candidate vaccine antigens including the glycolytic enzyme triose-phosphate isomerase (SmTPI), a 28 kDa glutathione-S-transferase (Sm28), the myofibrilar protein paramyosin (Sm97), an integral membrane protein (Sm23) and calpain (Smcalpain) have been characterised and their primary sequences derived for Schistosoma mansoni. Furthermore, sequences are available for synthetic peptides mimicking epitopes on these molecules capable of inducing schistosome-specific T- and B-cell responses. These schistosome vaccine c..