In vivo panning for schistosome protective epitopes

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DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Schistosomiasis afflicts several hundred million people, causing substantial morbidity and premature death as well as major economic hardship in many developing countries. Over a billion people are at risk of infection. Advances in genomics and proteomics, as well as new technologies such as phage display and recombinant antibodies, offer important new opportunities to develop and test hypotheses relating to these worm parasites and for new schistosomiasis control strategies. Schistosomes are trematode worms that are able to survive for many years within the vasculature of permissive vertebrate hosts. Although schistosomes reportedly possess a variety of immune evasive tools, these blood flukes clearly can become susceptible to immune killing by effectors mediated by antibody directed against the host-exposed tegument. Compelling evidence comes from the rat model, which, unlike mice and humans, becomes strongly immune to schistosomiasis mansoni, and produces antibodies against adult worm surface epitopes that direct the killing of larval and adult schistosomes. Based on these and other data, we hypothesize that schistosomes can be killed in vivo through an immune process that is mediated by protective antibodies directed against a discrete subset of worm surface epitopes. In this R21 grant application, we propose to employ an innovative in vivo phage display technique to identify single-chain antibodies (scFvs) able to bind to the surface of schistosomes as they reside within their host and then test these antibodies for their ability to direct killing of the parasites. The Specific Aims are: #1. Use "in vivo panning" of an antibody (scFv) phage display library prepared from rats immune to schistosomiasis to identify and then characterize host-interactive surface epitopes. #2. Engineer recombinant antibodies that bind to host-interactive schistosome epitopes and test their ability to mediate parasite killing within mice. This research is designed to identify new targets of protective immunity that will serve as vaccine candidates. Furthermore, it will produce new information on the biochemistry of the host-interactive parasite surface in vivo and create genetically modifiable scFv reagents that will lead to a range of unique research opportunities to investigate helminth parasite rejection and immune evasion strategies.