Recombinant Vaccines Against Pathogenic Trypanosomatids

The Leishmania spp, Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma brucei spp are the causative agents of tropical infections, and over 20 million people worldwide suffer from these neglected diseases. During the last century, vaccine development has had an undeniable impact on public health and may offer some alternatives for the control of parasitic diseases. Immune protection against experimental infection with these parasites has been studied and many types of immunogens have been used. Use of new technologies has allowed the development of recombinant proteins and DNA-based vaccines against those protozoans, aiming to generate both humoral and cellular protective responses. A large amount of data have been obtained from preclinical model systems which gave us promising results. The main challenge at the present is to translate what has been succeeded in these models into efficient human vaccines. The objective of this review is to summarize the efforts of the science community about the development of recombinant vaccines against trypanosomatids.

Keywords: African trypanosomiasis, Cellular response, Chagas disease, DNA vaccine, Humoral response, Immunotherapy, Leishmania spp, Leishmaniasis, Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi.