| Popis: |
The goal of this study was to map the glycosylation pattern and antigenic properties of the salivary proteins of two closely related sand fly species, Phlebotomus perniciosus and P. orientalis. Affinity blotting with commercially available lectins revealed that many salivary proteins of these species are N-glycosylated, while the presence of O-glycosylation could not be confirmed. The level of N-glycosylation of most of these proteins is quite low, a larger number of potential N-glycosylation sites were found only in the amino acid sequences of P. orientalis hyaluronidase and endonucleases of both species tested. Four antigens from P. perniciosus salivary glands were selected for expression in a bacterial expression system; two of these proteins (PpeSP01 and PpeSP01B) were not glycosylated and the glycosylation level of the remaining two (PpeSP03B and PpeSP07) was low. The antigenic properties of the four chosen recombinant proteins were subsequently tested using immunoblot and ELISA. During the initial experiments with the sera of dogs experimentally bitten by P. perniciosus, two proteins (rSP07 and rSP01B) were proven unsuitable and they were excluded from further experiments. Recombinant proteins rSP03B and rSP01 were recognized by the same IgG antibodies as the native forms of these proteins... |
