CHARACTERIZATION OF CRUDE SOMATIC ANTIGENS OF HAEMONCHUS CONTORTUS AND BUNOSTOMUM TRIGONOCEPHALUM OF SHEEP

S. DAS¹, A. BRAHMA², S. BAIDYA³, J.D. GHOSH⁴, R. JAS⁵*
¹Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata 700 037, India
²Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata 700 037, India
³Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata 700 037, India
⁴Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata 700 037, India
⁵Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata 700 037, India
* Corresponding Author : rumajas@gmail.com

Received : 01-02-2016     Accepted : 19-03-2016     Published : 14-05-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 2       Pages : 184 - 186
Int J Parasitol Res 8.2 (2016):184-186

Keywords : Haemonchus contortus, Bunostomum trigonocephalum, antigenic profiles, shared antigens, cross-reactivity
Academic Editor : Anil Moolchandani
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The authors thankfully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi in conducting this study under the research project entitled All India Network Programme on Gastrointestinal Parasitism.
Author Contribution : None declared

Antigenic cross-reactivity among different helminths is the major challenge in developing a reliable tool for immuno-diagnosis and immuno-prophylaxis of parasitic diseases. The present study was designed to characterize the crude somatic antigen (CSAg) of Haemonchus contortus (CSAg-Hc) and Bunostomum trigonocephalum (CSAg-Bt) of sheep with a view to detect shared / cross-reacting polypeptides between these two nematodes. The study was performed by sodium-dodecyl-polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and western blot analysis using homologous and heterologous hyper-immune sera (HIS) raised in rabbits against CSAg-Hc and CSAg-Bt separately. Six out of 10 polypeptides in CSAg-Hc and six out of 13 polypeptides in CSAg-Bt were found dominant by SDS-PAGE. Four polypeptides (Mw; 78, 68, 54, 37 kDa) out of seven immune-reactive polypeptides in CSAg-Hc and four polypeptides (Mw; 78, 68, 47, 29 kDa) out of nine immunogenic polypeptides were detected as immune-dominant by western blot analysis using homologous anti-sera. Four immunogenic polypeptides (Mw; 78, 68, 60, 37 kDa) were shared between these two nematodes as detected by SDS-PAGE and subsequently by immunoblot assay. One polypeptide (54 kDa) of CSAg-Hc and one polypeptide (55 kDa) of CSAg-Bt besides those four shared polypeptides showed cross-reactivity with HIS against CSAg-Bt and antiserum of CSAg-Hc, respectively. Two shared polypeptides (78 and 68 kDa) were observed as dominant immune-reactive polypeptides for both the parasites. The shared dominant immune-reactive polypeptides as identified in this study would ideally constitute promising candidate antigen for diagnosis of mixed infection of these two haematophagous nematode species.