Evaluation of Protective Immune Responses Induced in BALB/c Mice and Goats by the Neospora caninum Surface SRS Proteins and Interleukin-18.

Neosporosis is caused by Neospora caninum (N. caninum), which mainly infects cattle and goats and severely threatens the animal industry. In this study, the inhibitory effects of polyclonal antiserum anti-NcSRS17, NcSRS2 and NcSRS52 were explored. Cytokines in mice or goat serum were detected after immunization. After infection, the survival of mice was recorded. The pathological changes and parasite loads were observed and detected in tissues. The results showed that anti-NcSRS2, NcSRS17 and NcSRS52 antibodies all inhibit the invasion and proliferation of N. caninum. The IFN-γ level in the NcSRS17 group was higher than that in the NcSRS2 and NcSRS52 groups, and higher in the NcSRS2-mIL-18 group than in the NcSRS2 group. The survival rates of mice were 16% in the positive control group, 67% in the SRS52 group, 83% in the SRS2 and mIL-18 groups and 100% in the SRS17 and SRS2-mIL-18 groups. Goats immunized with NcSRS17-gIL-18 developed high levels of IL-4, IL-12 and IFN-γ compared with those immunized with NcSRS-17. Parasite loads in the brains of animals in the NcSRS17 and NcSRS17-gIL-18 groups were significantly reduced, and were significantly lower in the NcSRS17-gIL-18 group (p ≤ 0.01). This study indicates that SRS17 may be an antigen candidate for vaccine development against neosporosis, and IL-18 can enhance the immune protective efficiency of antigen candidates.

Investigation on the temperature effect of a mixed vesicle composed of polydiacetylene and BODIPY 558.

BODIPY 558 is an insensitive fluorescent reagent to temperature. But when it is inserted into polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicles, the resultant complex presents a considerable temperature effect. In this article, we reported the temperature-dependent fluorescence intensity of a vesicle-based sensor constructed by PDA and BODIPY fluorescent probe. The fluorescence of BODIPY was considerably quenched in the polymerized diacetylene lipid membrane, but recovered by increasing the temperature of vesicle solution. The mechanism of quenching was detailedly investigated, and we deduced that the fluorescence quenching and recovery were associated with the conjugated conformation of the PDA backbone.