Blood of African Hedgehog Atelerix albiventris Contains 115-kDa Trypanolytic Protein that Kills Trypanosoma...

Protozoan parasites of the Order Trypanosomatida infect a wide range of multicellular plants and animals, causing devastating and potentially fatal diseases. Trypanosomes are the most relevant members of the order in sub-Saharan Africa because of mortalities and morbidities caused to humans and livestock.

There are growing concerns that trypanosomes are expanding their reservoirs among wild animals, which habours the parasites, withstand the infection, and from which tsetse flies transmit the parasites back to humans and livestock. This study was designed to investigate the potentials of the African hedgehog serving as reservoir for African animal trypanosomes.

Five adult hedgehogs alongside five laboratory mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with 10⁶ and 10⁴ of Trypanosoma congolense cells, respectively, and monitored for parasitemia and survival. Serum from twenty hedgehogs was subjected to trypanocidal activity-guided fractionation by successive ion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatographies, followed by characterization with Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).

Hedgehogs were resistant to the infection as no parasite was detected and none died even after 60 days, while all the mice died within 12 days. Both the serum and plasma prepared from hedgehogs demonstrated trypanocidal activity- rapidly killed trypanosomes even when diluted 1000 times. The trypanolytic factor was identified to be proteinaceous with an estimated molecular weight of 115-kDa.

For the first time, it is here demonstrated that hedgehog blood has significant trypanolytic activity against T. congolense. The potential application of the hedgehog protein for the breeding of trypanosomosis-resistant livestock in tsetse fly belt is discussed.