PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Guha, Rajan
AU  - Gupta, Deepika
AU  - Rastogi, Ruchir
AU  - Vikram, Rajagopal
AU  - Krishnamurthy, Ganga
AU  - Bimal, Sanjiva
AU  - Roy, Syamal
AU  - Mukhopadhyay, Amitabha
TI  - Vaccination with <em>Leishmania</em> Hemoglobin Receptor–Encoding DNA Protects Against Visceral Leishmaniasis
AID  - 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006406
DP  - 2013 Sep 11
TA  - Science Translational Medicine
PG  - 202ra121--202ra121
VI  - 5
IP  - 202
4099  - http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/202/202ra121.short
4100  - http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/202/202ra121.full
AB  - Leishmaniasis is a severe infectious disease. Drugs used for leishmaniasis are very toxic, and no vaccine is available. We found that the hemoglobin receptor (HbR) of Leishmania was conserved across various strains of Leishmania, and anti-HbR antibody could be detected in kala-azar patients’ sera. Our results showed that immunization with HbR-DNA induces complete protection against virulent Leishmania donovani infection in both BALB/c mice and hamsters. Moreover, HbR-DNA immunization stimulated the production of protective cytokines like interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-12 (IL-12), and tumor necrosis factor–α (TNF-α) with concomitant down-regulation of disease-promoting cytokines like IL-10 and IL-4. HbR-DNA vaccination also induced a protective response by generating multifunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. All HbR-DNA–vaccinated hamsters showed sterile protection and survived during an experimental period of 8 months. These findings demonstrate the potential of HbR as a vaccine candidate against visceral leishmaniasis.