Leptospirosis, a widespread zoonosis caused by spirochetes belonging to the genus Leptospira, remains a major public and veterinary health problem in developing countries. Mortality remains significant, related both to delays in diagnosis due to lack of infrastructure and adequate clinical diagnosis, and to other poorly understood reasons that may include inherent pathogenicity of some leptospiral strains or genetically determined host immunopathological responses. Moreover, the overall disease burden is underestimated, since leptospirosis is a significant cause of undifferentiated fever frequently observed in other disease symptoms.
Since environmental control measurements are difficult to implement and there is not a universal available vaccine for human use, the complete genomic sequence of Leptospira species provides a window of opportunity to identify potential vaccine candidates for leptospirosis. The immunogenic proteins, especially the outer membrane surface proteins of pathogenic Leptospira, may be effective as vaccinogens. The identification of proteins, which are conserved among pathogenic Leptospira that could generate cross-protection against various serovars, has become a major focus of leptospirosis research.
Failure of LIC13435 Protein of Leptospira interrogans Serovar Copenhageni to Confer Protection in Immunized Hamsters: Vivian L Hashimoto, Zenaide M Moraes Amane P Gonçales Silvio A Vasconcellos and Paulo L Ho
Last date updated on April, 2024