leishmania mexicana gp63 cdna using gene gun induced higher immunity to l. mexicana infection compared to soluble leishmania antigen in balb/c

background: leishmaniasis is a worldwide disease prevalent in tropical and sub tropical coun­tries. many attempts have been made and different strategies have been approached to develop a potent vaccine against leishmania . dna immunisation is a method, which is shown to be effec­tive in leishmania vaccination. leishmania soluble antigen (sla) has also recently been used leishmania vaccination. methods: the immunity generated by sla and l. mexicana gp63 cdna was compared in groups of 6 mice, which were statistically analysed by student t - test with the p -value of 0.05. sla was administered by two different methods; intramuscular injection and injection of den­dritic cells (dcs) loaded with sla. l. mexicana gp63 cdna was administered by the gene gun. results: immunisation of balb/c mice with l. mexicana gp63 resulted in high levels of th1-type immune response and cytotoxic t lymphocytes (ctl) activity, which were accompanied with protection induced by the immunisation against l. mexicana infection. in contrast, administra­tion of sla, produced a mixed th1/th2-type immune responses as well as a high level of ctl activity but did not protect mice from the infection. conclusion: the results indicate higher protection by dna immunisation using l. mexicana gp63 cdna compared to sla, which is accompanied by a high level of th1 immune response. however, the ctl activity does not necessarily correlate with the protection induced by the vac­cine. also, gene gun immunisation is a potential approach in leishmania vaccination. these find­ings would be helpful in opening new windows in leishmania vaccine research.