RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Vaccination with Leishmania Hemoglobin Receptor–Encoding DNA Protects Against Visceral Leishmaniasis JF Science Translational Medicine FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP 202ra121 OP 202ra121 DO 10.1126/scitranslmed.3006406 VO 5 IS 202 A1 Guha, Rajan A1 Gupta, Deepika A1 Rastogi, Ruchir A1 Vikram, Rajagopal A1 Krishnamurthy, Ganga A1 Bimal, Sanjiva A1 Roy, Syamal A1 Mukhopadhyay, Amitabha YR 2013 UL http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/202/202ra121.abstract 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.