Inmune response of the equine infection viral gp45 protein to a synthetic peptide in mice.

SOUTULLO A; GARCIA MI; RACCA A; TONARELLI G; PERIN C; MALAN BOREL I

La Habana - Cuba

Congreso; VI Congreso Latinoamericano de Inmunología - III Congreso Cubano de Inmunología; 2002

ALAI - Sociedad Cubana de Inmunología

Equine infectious anemis virus (EIAV) is lentivirus that cuses chronic disease in horses. The infection is characterized by recurrent febrile episodes associated with viremia and anemia. The virus has two envelope glycoproteins –gp90 and gp45- wich are the primary immunogens during persistent infection in horses. The gp45 contains antigenic and conserved regions named R32, R51 and R34. we investigated the ability of synthetic peptides –analogous to R32 and R51 native region- to induce an immune response in mice. During three months a group of five Balb/c mice were inoculated with PBS containing 0 (group 1); 20 (group 2) or 100μg (group 3) peptide emulsified with the Freund´s Complete Adjuvant. The antibody was determined by ELISA and the specific lymphoproliferation by BrdU assay expressed as positive percentage (PP) and stimulation index (SI), respectively. The results showed high serum levels of antibodies when 100μg of peptide was used (p<0.05). The values were 29.57±4.26 (group 2) and 126.26±52.67 (group 3) after 63 days. The especific SI, evaluated after 6 days of culture were higher than the control group (p<0.05) in both cases. Taking into account that immunity against viral infections is mediated by a combination of humoral and cellular immune mechanisms, we observed that this peptide elicid both of them in mice.