Potency of detergents in enhancing Schistosoma mansoni tegumental antigens

Vaccine strategies represent an essential component for the future control of schistosomiasis. This work aimed to evaluate the role of detergents for potentiating the effect of Schistosoma mansoni tegumental antigens (TA) against challenge infection.

Two detergents; Triton X-100 (TX-100) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), were selected for extraction of tegumental proteins. Mice were vaccinated with two doses of each preparation (100 µg protein) at time intervals 15 days before infection. Evaluation was performed by estimating particular metabolic pathways, including the Krebs cycle (via succinate dehydrogenase); glycolysis (lactate dehydrogenase); gluconeogenesis (glucose-6-phosphatase); hydrolytic enzymes (acid phosphatase); and nucleic acid catabolic enzymes (5'-nucleotidase). Serum protein profiles, worm burden, ova counts, spleen and relative liver weights were also investigated. The work was extended to study the histopathological picture of the liver including granuloma count, and total infection area. Vaccinated post-challenged mice showed amelioration of the selected biochemical parameters and reduction in worm and ova count (P ≤ 0.0001) as well as improvement in the histological features of the liver.

Triton X-100 potentiated the protective effect of S. mansoni tegumental antigen and extracted effective proteins better than SDS, while TA alone recorded the lowest level of protection.

TX-100 will be more efficient for future studies in molecular identification of novel candidate tegumental proteins.