The genetic immunization with paraflagellar rod protein-2 fused to the HSP70 confers protection against late Trypanosoma cruzi infection Morell Hita, María Thomas, M. Carmen Caballero Morales, Trinidad Alonso, Carlos López, Manuel C. This work was supported by FIS, Grant nos. PI020565, PI020862, PI051747, C03/04 RICET from MSC and 266/03 from SAS. The immunological properties of the Trypanosoma cruzi paraflagellar rod proteins (PFR2 and PFR3) administered alone as well as fused to HSP70 have been analyzed in mice in the context of genetic immunization. The immunization of mice with the DNA vectors containing the PFRs gene or PFRs-HSP70 fused genes induced high level of IgG2a anti-PFRs. However, only the immunization with the PFR2-HSP70 fused genes triggers in spleen cells a statistically significant enhancement of expression of IL-12 and IFN- and a decrease in the percentage of cells expressing IL-4. Likewise, the PFR2-HSP70 molecule elicits a statistically significant activation of PFR2 antigen specific CTLs. Immunization with the PFR2-HSP70 chimeric gene provided a protective response against a T. cruzi experimental infection. 2025-01-30T10:57:41Z 2025-01-30T10:57:41Z 2006-07-21 journal article Morell M; Thomas MC; Caballero T; Alonso C; López MC. The genetic immunization with paraflagellar rod protein-2 fused to the HSP70 confers protection against late Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Vaccine 24 (2006) 7046–7055 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.07.006 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/101272 10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.07.006 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier