THE IMMUNIZATION WITH C-TERMINAL REGION OF Trypanosoma cruzi RIBOSOMAL P1 AND P2 PROTEINS INDUCE LONG TERM DURATION CROSS-REACTIVE ANTIBODIES WITH HEART FUNCTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS IN YOUNG AND AGED MICE.

MOTRAN, C. FRETES, R. CERBAN, F. RIVAROLA, W. VOTTERO-CIMA, E.

CLINICAL IMMUNOLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2000 vol. 97 p. 89 - 89

1521-6616

he R13 peptide sequence (EEEDDDMGFGLFD) that corresponds to the C-terminal region of Trypanosoma cruzi ribosomal P1 and P2 proteins differs from the eukariotic P concensus sequence EESDDDMGFGLFD (H13) only in a nonconservative amino acid substitution. The immunization of BALB/c mice with R13 synthetic peptide coupled to a carrier protein (OVA) induces specific (anti-R13) and autoreactive (anti-H13 and anti-heart) antibodies as well as heart functional alterations. Since aged human and experimental animals are impaired in their responses to most foreign antigens but they produce greater amounts of autoantibodies, in this work we used aged mice as an experimental model able to exaggerate the autoimmune component of the R13-induced response in case it was present. We studied whether these antibodies generated in the absence of the parasite would induce pathological changes in heart tissues. The levels of antibodies against R13 (foreign antigen) and H13 (autoantigen) studied comparatively