Aglutinação de Leishmania amazonensis induzida por lectinas como método para purificação de promastigotas metacíclicas

Abstract

In experimental leishmaniasis infections, the use of metacyclic enriched inoculum is very important because it can simulate the natural infection and avoids the inflamatory response induced by the high density parasite inoculum. The surface of different evolutionary forms of Leishmania is coated by several glycoconjugates that can be recognized specifically and reversibly by lectins, proteins that have affinity with carbohydrates. This being the case, one could use lectins in order to purify metacyclic Leishmania. The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether lectins of different specificities would agglutinate L. amazonensis promastigotes of different evolutionary forms. A panel of 7 lectins were used. The binding specificity was analyzed by agglutination tests. DVL agglutinated 78% of L. amazonensis promastigotes from logarithmic phase culture and 52% from stationary phase, and therefore was selected for in vivo tests. Stationary phase promastigotes were incubated with DVL to evaluate if the agglutination was stage-specific and it was purified the agglutinated and non agglutinated fractions. Golden hamsters were infected with 106 promastigotes and grouped as: Agglutinated fraction (FA) (n=8); Non agglutinated fraction (FNA) (n=9); Control (CT) (n=8). The lesion size was measured over the course of 6 weeks. The parasite load of regional lymph node was quantified by limiting dilution and histopathological analysis of the lesions were performed on their paws. The lesions began at the third week in all groups. The lesion’s size was similar in all of them, except at the fourth and fifth weeks that FNA presented a transitory reduction (p<0,01). There were no significant differences concerning the parasite load and histopathologic changes among the groups. These data suggest that DVL did not select effectivelly infective forms of L. amazonensis, although it agglutinates promastigotes from the two culture growth phases.