MOLECULAR DEFINITION OF FILARIAL ANTIGENS

在人类丝虫病的研究中， 通过：1）缺乏确定的寄生虫抗原; 2）广泛的 在八种丝虫中观察到的免疫交叉反应 人类物种; 3）缺乏丰富的寄生虫材料。 该项目的目标是确定和产生丝虫病 在包括寄生虫特异性免疫中重要的蛋白质 在人类宿主中的反应，并在分子水平上理解， 相关丝虫物种之间的差异。 已经构建了cDNA和基因组文库（Brugia malayi和班氏吴策线虫）或提供（盘尾丝虫属 肠扭转），使得用确定的患者血清或患者 T细胞可以进行。 重组抗原和探针具有 已经鉴定出：a）在抗原中诱导T细胞应答- 特异性方式; B）在盘尾丝虫病中可能部分保护; c）可以通过限制区分相关的丝虫物种 片段长度多态性; d）编码免疫显性 分子量在W. bancrofti;以及e）识别串联重复的 W. bancrofti基因组。

In the study of the human filariases, progress has been hampered by: 1) the lack of defined parasite antigens; 2) the broad immunological cross-reactivity seen among the eight filarial species of humans; and 3) the dearth of abundant parasite material. The objectives of this project are to define and generate filarial proteins that are important in including parasite-specific immune response in the human host and to understand, at a molecular level, the differences among related filarial species. cDNA and genomic libraries have been either constructed (Brugia malayi and Wuchereria bancrofti) or made available (Onchocerca volvulus) so that screening with defined patient sera or patient T cells could be performed. Recombinant antigens and probes have been identified that: a) induce T cell responses in an antigen- specific manner; b) may be in part protective in onchocerciasis; c) can distinguish among related filarial species by restriction fragment length polymorphisms; d) encode for an immunodominant molecular in W. bancrofti; and e) identify a tandemly repeated segment of the W. bancrofti genome.