Proteomic analysis of proteins released by Tritrichomonas foetus: Identification of potential targets for the development of new diagnostic methods

ABDALA, MARÍA EUGENIA; RIVERO, MARÍA BELÉN; LUQUE, MELCHOR EMILIO; DI LULLO, DAVID; LUNA, BRUNO ELÍAS; CARRANZA, PEDRO GABRIEL; VOLTA, BIBIANA J.; RIVERO, FERNANDO DAVID

VETERINARY PARASITOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2023 vol. 316

0304-4017

Bovinetrichomonosis (BT), a disease of the bovine urogenital tract, is caused by theprotozoan Tritrichomonas foetus (Tf). Tf causes endometritis, infertility,and premature death of the embryo, which generates considerable economiclosses. The proteins released can mediate fundamentalinteractions between the pathogen and the host, triggering factors associatedwith the symptomatology, immune evasion and pathogenesis characteristic of thespecies. However, little is known about the profile of the proteins released byTf. In order to contribute to their knowledge, we performed an isolationprotocol and a proteomic profiling of the supernatant (SN) content of six Tfisolates. A total of 662 proteins present in the SN of Tf were detected,out of which 121 were shared by the six isolates, while the remaining 541 werefound in at least one of the isolates studied. The comparative analyses usingthe databases of Tf strain genome K revealed 32.9% of uncharacterized proteins. Thebioinformatic analyses showed that the main molecular functions predicted werebinding (47.9%) and catalytic activity (38.2%). Additionally, we performed immunodetectionassays to evidence the antigenic potential of SN proteins. Interestingly, weobserved great ability to detect SN proteins from all six isolates using serumfrom immunized mice and infected bulls. A complementary massspectrometry assay allowed us to determine that the proteins that showed thestrongest signal intensity in the immunoassays were Grp78 (A0A1J4IZS3)andAp65 (A0A1J4JSR1). This work represents the firstproteomic characterization of Tf SNproteins and their antigenic potential