Evaluation of Immune Responses Induced by <i>GRA7</i> and <i>ROP2</i> Genes by DNA Vaccine Cocktails Against Acute Toxoplasmosis in BALB/c Mice.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: in BALB/c mice. METHODS: according to immunized mice three times with a 3 week interval. For lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine assay, splenocytes of immunized mice were cultured for proliferation and cytokine assay. The other mice in each group were inoculated by the parasite and mortality of the mice was evaluated on a daily basis. RESULTS: The cytokine assay results and lymphocyte proliferation response in cocktail DNA vaccines showed that IFN-γ levels were significantly higher than controls (p<0.05), whereas IL-4 expression level in BALB/c mice immunized with cocktail was lower than that in control groups and these results are confirmed by MTT test. Predominance of the levels of IgG2a over IgG1 was observed in sera of the immunized mice. Furthermore, IgG2a values in cocktail DNA vaccines pcGRA7 were significantly higher than control group (p<0.01). In contrast, IgG1 antibodies were similar between the two groups (p>0.5). So, survival time in the immune groups was significantly prolonged in comparison to control ones (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: is a potential vaccine candidate against toxoplasmosis.