Abstract
Introduction: Leishmaniasis is one of the 10 most important infectious diseases in the world, including the three diseases for which the development of vaccines, drugs, and insecticides is difficult to tackle. Despite over a century of efforts made in the field, no suitable vaccine, medicine, or insecticide has been introduced for the disease to date. In this survey, we intended to evaluate the immunity responses against Excretory-Secretory and Lysate Antigens purified from Leishmania major.
Methods: A sufficient amount of L. major [MRHO/IR/75/ER] was first cultured in Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle (NNN) and RPMI 1640 media in the in vitro environment. Once peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were prepared, they were cultured with antigens in a 5% CO2 incubator, and their supernatant was then measured using the interleukin-4 (IL4) and interferon-γ (INF)-γ the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit.
Results: An average concentration of IL4 and INF-γ of the cell culture containing phytohaemagglutinin showed a significant difference between the average concentration of these two cytokines in the cell culture of all antigens (P<0.05), but it indicated insignificant difference between the antigens (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Since the larger the immunogenic and protective components are exposed to the human immune system, the more concrete the results will be, investigations should thus be conducted at the cellular and even molecular levels. Moreover, the antigen used should be a conjugation of adjuvants, immunogens, and proliferators of macrophages to provide sufficient stimulation of the immune system against the Leishmania parasite.