The aim of this study was to find novel proteins expressed from an Angiostrongylus cantonensis adult female worm cDNA library for serodiagnosis of angiostrongyliasis. An immuno-dominant clone, fAC22, was identified by immunoscreening with pooled positive sera from proven angiostrongyliasis patients. The clone contained an open reading frame of 2,136 bp encoding a 80.5 kDa protein with a predict...

In the course of immunoscreening of Clonorchis sinensis cDNA library, a cDNA CsRP12 containing a tandem repeat was isolated. The cDNA CsRP12 encodes two putative peptides of open reading frames (ORFs) 1 and 2 (CsRP12-1 and -2). The repetitive region is composed of 15 repeats of 10 amino acids. Of the two putative peptides, CsRP12-1 was proline-rich and found to have homologues in several organi...

Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are considered target molecules for cancer immunotherapy. To identify novel CT antigens, immunoscreening of a testicular cDNA library was performed using serum obtained from a colon cancer patient who was immunized with a new dendritic cell vaccine. We isolated 64 positive cDNA clones comprised of 40 different genes, de...

The nfa1 gene was cloned from a cDNA library of pathogenic Naegleria fowleri by immunoscreening; it consisted of 360 bp and produced a 13.1 kDa recombinant protein (rNfa1) that showed the pseudopodia-specific localization by immunocytochemistry in the previous study. Based on the idea that the pseudopodia-specific Nfa1 protein mentioned above seems to be involved in the pathogenicity of N. fowl...

Plasmodium falciparum can invade all stages of red blood cells, while Plasmodium vivax can invade only reticulocytes. Although many P. vivax proteins have been discovered, their functions are largely unknown. Among them, P. vivax reticulocyte binding proteins (PvRBP1 and PvRBP2) recognize and bind to reticulocytes. Both proteins possess a C-terminal hydrophobic transmembrane domain, which drive...

The number of malaria vaccine candidates in preclinical and clinical development is limited. To identify novel blood-stage malaria vaccine candidates, we constructed a library of 1,827P. falciparum proteins prepared using the wheat germ cell-free system (WGCFS). Also, a high-throughput AlphaScreen procedure was developed to measure antibody reactivity to the recombinant products. Purified IgGs ...

Using hybridization techniques, we prepared the monoclonal antibody (Mab) 7C3-C3 against Toxoplasma gondii. The protection tests showed that the protein (Mab7C3-C3) inhibited the invasion and proliferation of T. gondii RH strain in HeLa cells. The passive transfer test indicated that the antibody significantly prolonged the survival time of the challenged mice. It was also shown that the antibo...

A cDNA encoding the rhoptry-associated protein 1 (RAP-1) homologue was obtained by immunoscreening an expression library prepared from Babesia gibsoni merozoite mRNA. The complete nucleotide sequence of the gene was 1740bp. Computer analysis suggested that the sequence contains an open reading frame of 1425bp encoding an expected protein with a molecular weight of 52kDa. Based on the sequence s...

BACKGROUND Systemic vasculitides constitute a heterogeneous group of diseases of autoimmunological origin characterized by inflammation of blood vessels and antibodies that react against autoantigens in a process that ultimately affects blood vessel walls. An important number of these patients present kidney disease. An endeavour of this area of research is the identification of autoantigens in...

Recent evidence indicates that the commitment to degrade cellular proteins by the ubiquitin proteolytic pathway is dependent on the covalent attachment of multiubiquitin chains to the target protein [Chau, V., Tobias, J. W., Bachmair, A., Marriott, D., Ecker, D. J., Gonda, D. K. & Varshavsky, A. (1989) Science 243, 1576-1583]. We have isolated a 20-kDa ubiquitin carrier protein [E2(20 kDa)] fro...