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Disruption of antigenic variation is crucial for effective parasite vaccine

Nature Medicine volume 16, pages 551–557 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Giardia lamblia is a human intestinal pathogen. Like many protozoan microorganisms, Giardia undergoes antigenic variation, a mechanism assumed to allow parasites to evade the host's immune response, producing chronic and/or recurrent infections. Recently, we found that the mechanism controlling variant-specific surface protein (VSP) switching in Giardia involves components of the RNA interference machinery and that disruption of this pathway generates trophozoites simultaneously expressing many VSPs. Here we use these altered trophozoites to determine the role of antigenic variation in a gerbil model of giardiasis. Our results show that either primary infection with trophozoites simultaneously expressing many VSPs or immunization with purified VSPs from the transgenic cells protects gerbils from subsequent Giardia infections. These results constitute, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence that antigenic variation is essential for parasite survival within hosts and that artificial disruption of this mechanism might be useful in generating vaccines against major pathogens that show similar behavior.

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Figure 1: Expression of VSPs in wild-type G. lamblia clones and in G. lamblia with deregulated antigenic variation.
Figure 2: Detection and quantification of Giardia cysts in stool samples of gerbils infected with various populations of wild-type and transgenic trophozoites and challenged with WB9B10 and WB1267.
Figure 3: Serum and intestinal contents of gerbils infected with transgenic trophozoites expressing the full repertoire of VSPs are able to agglutinate different Giardia clones in vitro.
Figure 4: Detection and quantification of Giardia cysts in stool samples of gerbils previously immunized with VSPs purified from various clonal populations of wild-type and transgenic trophozoites.
Figure 5: Intestinal morphology of the gerbil's upper small intestine during infection and challenge.
Figure 6: VSP-specific antibodies react to heterologous isolates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T.E. Nash (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US National Institutes of Health) for providing VSP-specific mAbs and Giardia strains and M.E. Rivarola and the Pathology Service of the School of Medicine, Catholic University of Cordoba, for technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the Agencia Nacional para la Promoción de la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Catholic University of Cordoba, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the EU CONTENT Project. H.D.L. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar and a Member of the Scientific Investigator's Career of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas.

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  1. Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Catholic University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina

    Fernando D Rivero, Alicia Saura, Cesar G Prucca, Pedro G Carranza, Alessandro Torri & Hugo D Lujan

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  1. Fernando D Rivero
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  2. Alicia Saura
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Contributions

F.D.R. performed most of the gerbil and in vitro experiments; C.G.P. generated transgenic trophozoites and performed confocal and epifluorescence assays; A.S. and P.G.C. collaborated in gerbil experiments and developed monoclonal antibodies. A.T. collected and evaluated human samples. All authors analyzed the data. H.D.L. supervised the project and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hugo D Lujan.

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Rivero, F., Saura, A., Prucca, C. et al. Disruption of antigenic variation is crucial for effective parasite vaccine. Nat Med 16, 551–557 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2141

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