Fig. 10. Protection assay with a pool of S. mansoni peptides from blood-feeding and nutrient uptake proteins.

a Balb/c mice (n = 7 in each group) received three doses containing WT phage (no insert controls) or a pool of phages expressing SmCatB, SmAE, MEG-3.1, MEG-4.1, MEG-8.1, and MEG-15 peptides. Twenty-eight days after the third dose, serum was collected. The animals were challenged with 120 cercariae of S. mansoni each, on the 60th day, and perfused 42 days after infection. The following parameters were evaluated: b total number of worms recovered per mouse in the perfusion, c number of female parasites recovered per mouse, d number of male parasites recovered per mouse, e number of eggs recovered per milligram of mouse liver, and f weight of mouse in grams at the day of perfusion. Boxplot represents median, first and third quartiles, whiskers extend up to minimum and maximum. These parameters were compared between immunized animals and WT controls using unpaired t-test (p < 0.05). Images created with Biorender.com.