Plant Expression of Hydrophobin Fused K39 Antigen for Visceral Leishmaniasis Immunodiagnosis
Visceral leishmaniasis is a Neglected Tropical Disease of high mortality caused by the protozoan . Its transmission cycle is complex, and it has in the domestic dog its main reservoir. The diagnostic tests currently used rely on prokaryotic systems' proteins, but their low sensitivity increases...
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Published in | Frontiers in plant science Vol. 12; p. 674015 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
31.05.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Visceral leishmaniasis is a Neglected Tropical Disease of high mortality caused by the protozoan
. Its transmission cycle is complex, and it has in the domestic dog its main reservoir. The diagnostic tests currently used rely on prokaryotic systems' proteins, but their low sensitivity increases the disease's burden. The plant transient expression of recombinant proteins allows the production of complex antigens. However, this system has limited competitiveness against the bacterial production of purified antigens. Thus, we have shown that the
K39 antigen's fusion to a hydrophobin allows its production for diagnostic tests without the need for intensive purification. The sera of naturally infected dogs specifically detect the semi-purified rK39-HFBI protein. The test validation against a panel of 158 clinical samples demonstrates the platform's viability, resulting in sensitivity and specificity of 90.7 and 97.5%, respectively. Thus, the use of semi-purified antigens fused to hydrophobins can become the standard platform for large-scale antigens production to expand diagnostic tests for other human and veterinary diseases worldwide. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Plant Biotechnology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science Edited by: Marcello Donini, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy Reviewed by: Linda Avesani, University of Verona, Italy; Chiara Lico, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship |
ISSN: | 1664-462X 1664-462X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpls.2021.674015 |