SEXUAL HORMONE EFFECTS UPON EXPERIMENTAL VACCINATION PROCESS AGAINST T. cruzi

BULFONI BALBI C; FLORENCIA PACINI,; BRENDA DI NATALE,; GONZÁLEZ, FLORENCIA; ESTEFANIA PROCHETTO3, CECILIA FARRÉ1,2, GUSTAVO CHAPO2, IVÁN MARCIPAR3, GABRIEL CABRERA3, ; ANA ROSA PÉREZ1,2.

San Luis

Congreso; LXXI Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología SAI; 2023

Sexual hormones can affect the immune response, and therefore may alsoinfluence the efficacy of vaccines. However, most preclinical studies aboutvaccine immunogenicity and efficacy tend to evaluate only females (F), since theyare known to have a better humoral response, assuming that the results apply tothe opposite sex. Additionally, there is evidence that male (M) mice are moresusceptible to T. cruzi infection than F. In this context, our objective was toevaluate the influence of sex and sexual hormones on the humoral and cellularresponse triggered after administering an experimental vaccine against T. cruzi.We worked with both sexes of BALB/c mice (n=5-8/group). Additionally, M weredivided into two groups, one of them was gonadectomized -MGx- and anothergroup underwent sham surgery -MSham-. All of them received 3 doses (1 every15 days) of the following formulations: Trans-sialidase (TS, 10 μg/dose), TS plusc-di-AMP adjuvant (TS+A) or saline solution as vehicle (V). Fifteen days afterimmunization completion, the levels of specific antibodies against TS (total IgGand IgG2a) were assayed by in-house ELISA. Cellular response against TS wasevaluated through a delayed hypersensitivity test by the inoculation of 5 μg of TSon the footpad. The result showed that in both sexes, TS+A induced a significantenhancement of specific total IgG and IgG2a compared to the rest immunizedgroups (p