Antibodies response induced by recombinant virus-like particles from Triatoma virus and chimeric antigens from Trypanosoma cruzi

The infection caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi affects humans and is called as Chagas disease. Currently, the main measures available to reduce the incidence of this disease are drug treatment and vector control. Traditionally, the development of vaccines occurs mainly through the use of antigenic candidates of the etiologic agent in the form of a vaccine preparation. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are structures analogous to viral capsids composed essentially of structural proteins and are widely used in vaccination protocols because of their immunostimulatory properties. In this context, the objective of this study was to use strategies in a murine immunization model to characterize the immunostimulatory capacity of VLPs from Triatoma virus (TrV-VLPs), analysed in the presence or absence of the aluminium vaccine adjuvant. In parallel, to characterize the immunogenic behaviour of four T. cruzi chimeric recombinant proteins (mix-IBMP) associated with TrV-VLPs or aluminium vaccine adjuvant.
This research was funded by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (grant number COOPB20503 - CSIC, Spain) and Global Health and Tropical Medicine [grant number GHTM-UID/multi/04413/2013] and partially supported by grants to DMAG, from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [BFU2012-36241], Grupos Investigación UPV/EHU 2018 [GIU18/172], and Gobierno Vasco [Elkartek KK-2017/00008], Programa de empresas Innovadoras A1 2020 EKINZAILE, The Basque Country, Spain. This study also was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçaomento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil).