Fig 5. CNF1 activity confers curative immunoadjuvant properties.

BALB/c mice were first infected with 3x10⁶ of stationary phase parasites. Fourteen days post-infection, mice were immunized via the nasal route with promastigote lysate (PL), wild-type CNF1 (WT CNF1), catalytically inactive CNF1 (mCNF1), PL plus either WT CNF1 (WT CNF1 + PL) or catalytically inactive CNF1 (mCNF1 + PL). The controls represent infected but non-immunized animals. Twenty-one and twenty-eight days post infection, the mice were immunized again. At day 42, the mice were sacrificed, and parasite numbers were determined by quantitative PCR using mouse spleen DNA extracts. The bars represent the mean cytokine production ± SEM. *: p<0.05, **: p<0,01, ***: p<0,001. n = 5.