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Jha BK, Varikuti S, Verma C, Shivahare R, Bishop N, Dos Santos GP, McDonald J, Sur A, Myler PJ, Schenkman S, Satoskar AR, McGwire BS. Immunization with a Trypanosoma cruzi cyclophilin-19 deletion mutant protects against acute Chagas disease in mice. NPJ Vaccines 2023; 8:63. [PMID: 37185599 PMCID: PMC10130101 DOI: 10.1038/s41541-023-00647-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Human infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi causes Chagas disease for which there are no prophylactic vaccines. Cyclophilin 19 is a secreted cis-trans peptidyl isomerase expressed in all life stages of Trypanosoma cruzi. This protein in the insect stage leads to the inactivation of insect anti-parasitic peptides and parasite transformation whereas in the intracellular amastigotes it participates in generating ROS promoting the growth of parasites. We have generated a parasite mutant with depleted expression of Cyp19 by removal of 2 of 3 genes encoding this protein using double allelic homologous recombination. The mutant parasite line failed to replicate when inoculated into host cells in vitro or in mice indicating that Cyp19 is critical for infectivity. The mutant parasite line also fails to replicate in or cause clinical disease in immuno-deficient mice further validating their lack of virulence. Repeated inoculation of mutant parasites into immuno-competent mice elicits parasite-specific trypanolytic antibodies and a Th-1 biased immune response and challenge of mutant immunized mice with virulent wild-type parasites is 100% effective at preventing death from acute disease. These results suggest that parasite Cyp19 may be candidate for small molecule drug targeting and that the mutant parasite line may warrant further immunization studies for prevention of Chagas disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bijay Kumar Jha
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Sanjay Varikuti
- Departments of Pathology and Microbiology, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Chaitenya Verma
- Departments of Pathology and Microbiology, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Rahul Shivahare
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Nicholas Bishop
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Gregory P Dos Santos
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
| | - Jacquelyn McDonald
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Aakash Sur
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Peter J Myler
- Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Sergio Schenkman
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
| | - Abhay R Satoskar
- Departments of Pathology and Microbiology, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
| | - Bradford S McGwire
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Wexner Medical Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
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