Abstract: Schistosomiasis ranks as the second most serious parasitic disease worldwide after malaria. More than 250 million people are infected with schistosomes in the tropics or subtropics. The treatment and control of schistosomiasis which is a major neglected tropical parasitic disease, depends almost exclusively on chemotherapy with Praziquantel (PZQ). Current serologic diagnostic assays have shown that schistosome specific antibodies in human serum may remain for at least 1 year after cure. Repeated administration of PZQ for a long time might induce drug resistance to the parasite which is a big challenge for strategizing for the prevention and control of schistosomiasis. As schistosome eggs represent the most pathogenic form causing the disease, it is essential to determine if and how the level of antibodies against schistosome Soluble Egg Antigens (SEA) is affected by PZQ treatment. In this study, researchers carried out an immunomic analysis to profile Schistosoma japonicum SEA reacting with pooled human serum samples of pre and post treatment with PZQ by two dimensional electrophoresis combined with Western blotting. A total of 67 protein spots that were serologically recognized by serum samples were successfully subjected to mass spectrometric analysis. Of them, 37 different characterized proteins were successfully identified. Furthermore, of 67 protein spots, the reactivity of 49 protein spots to sera was reduced 20 weeks after PZQ treatment whereas only 5 spots showed increases in the intensity of recognition by post treatment sera. The present study suggested that chemotherapy with PZQ mainly affects the intensity of serological recognition of S. japonicum SEA. The immunomic proteins that were identified may facilitate a better understanding of the egg induced pathogenesis of schistosomiasis and host-parasite interplay and may provide potential targets for the diagnosis and evaluation of treatment for the disease as well.
C. Ju, B. Xu, Y. Lu, X.J. Mo, T. Zhang, S.B Chen, F. Liu, S.J. Cui, W. Liu, J.H. Chen, Z. Feng, J.X. Peng and W. Hu, 2012. Comparative Immunomic Analysis of Schistosoma japonicum Soluble Egg Antigens Reacting with Patient Sera Before and after Praziquantel Treatment. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 2828-2838.