An invariant Trypanosoma vivax vaccine antigen induces protective immunity

Trypanosomes are protozoan parasites that cause infectious diseases, including African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) in humans and nagana in economically important livestock(1,2). An effective vaccine against trypanosomes would be an important control tool, but the parasite has evolved sophisticated immunoprotective mechanisms-including antigenic variation(3)-that present an apparently insurmountable barrier to vaccination. Here we show, using a systematic genome-led vaccinology approach and a mouse model of Trypanosoma vivax infection(4), that protective invariant subunit vaccine antigens can be identified. Vaccination with a single recombinant protein comprising the extracellular region of a conserved cell-surface protein that is localized to the flagellum membrane (which we term 'invariant flagellum antigen from T. vivax') induced long-lasting protection. Immunity was passively transferred with immune serum, and recombinant monoclonal antibodies to this protein could induce sterile protection and revealed several mechanisms of antibody-mediated immunity, including a major role for complement. Our discovery identifies a vaccine candidate for an important parasitic disease that has constrained socioeconomic development in countries in sub-Saharan Africa(5), and provides evidence that highly protective vaccines against trypanosome infections can be achieved.

Automated summary

A systematic genome-led approach identified protective invariant subunit vaccine antigens for Trypanosoma vivax, providing a vaccine candidate for the important parasitic disease that has constrained socioeconomic development in sub-Saharan Africa. The study showed that highly protective vaccines against trypanosome infections can be achieved, despite the parasite's sophisticated immunoprotective mechanisms.