Figure 10.

Specificity of antibodies from infected mice against wild-type and mutant Tc24 constructs, survival and tissue parasite burdens of acutely infected mice vaccinated therapeutically. Antibodies from mice infected with T. cruzi parasites were evaluated for specificity against either Tc24–WT (His-tagged) or Tc24-C4 by ELISA (Panel A). Plates were coated with either antigen and bound antibodies were detected using labeled goat anti-mouse IgG2a secondary antibodies. Geometric mean titers were calculated. Acutely infected mice were vaccinated therapeutically with either Tc24-WT (His-tagged) or Tc24-C4 combined with E6020 SE. Survival was monitored daily (Panel B) and tissue parasite burdens were measured by quantitative PCR from cardiac tissue (Panel C). Group 1 (●) treated with benznidazole; Group 2 (□) vaccinated with Tc24-WT His + E6020 SE; Group 3 (▲) vaccinated with Tc24-C4 + E6020 SE; Group 4 (▽) vaccinated with E6020 SE; Group 5 (♦) vaccinated with PBS only. Open symbols in panel C indicate mice that did not survive until the end of the study.