Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (11): 4829-4839.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.11.005

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Expression Regulation, Structure and Immune Responses of Variant Surface Glycoproteins in Trypanosomes

Qingqin ZENG1(), Rusong LI2, Rui LI1, Chunyin ZHU1, Xinle WANG2, Xuedong HE3, Jialing HUAN1, Ziyu YE1, Ying WANG4, Jing ZHANG4, Tianqi XIA1, Houhui SONG1,*(), Yadong ZHENG1,*(), Yongchun YANG1,*()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Applied Technology on Green-Eco-Healthy Animal Husbandry of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Research Center for Animal Health Diagnostics & Advanced Technology, Zhejiang International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Veterinary Medicine and Health Management, China-Australia Joint Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, College of Animal Science and Technology & College of Veterinary Medicine of Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
    2. Ningbo Customs Technical Center/Ningbo Key Laboratory of Port Biological and Food Safety Testing, Ningbo 315000, China
    3. College of Animal Sciences (College of Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian-Taiwan Key Laboratory of Animal Pathogen Biology, Fuzhou 350002, China
    4. National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research), NHC Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, Shanghai 200025, China
  • Received:2023-12-12 Online:2024-11-23 Published:2024-11-30
  • Contact: Houhui SONG, Yadong ZHENG, Yongchun YANG E-mail:18065198536@163.com;songhh@zafu.edu.cn;zhengyadong@zafu.edu.cn;yyc@zafu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Trypanosomes are a type of blood-borne protozoa transmitted by vectors, which can infect humans and animals and cause trypanosomiasis being responsible for huge disease burdens. The surface of trypanosomes is a dense "coat" formed by a single variable surface glycoprotein (VSG), which regularly undergoes replacement at each stage of infection to evade host immune killing. The genomes of trypanosomes contain hundreds to thousands of VSG genes and pseudogenes, and parasites employ precise expression regulation mechanisms to exclusively express one type of VSG at each specific infection stage. VSGs have good antigenicity, which is mainly determined by the immunodominant epitopes, glycosylation modifications, subdomains and their conformation located in the top lobe of the N-terminal domain (NTD). VSG-specific IgM responses play an important role in trypanosome clearance, but the functions of IgG-mediated immune lysis are very limited. Host specific IgG immune responses become stereotyped, targeting only a limited set of immunodominant epitopes in each VSG, thus leading to reduction of cross reactivity with different VSGs. This article reviews the updates of VSG in expression regulation, protein structure, immunogenicity and immune responses, providing a theoretical basis for a profound understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of trypanosomes and the development of effective prevention and control measures against trypanosomiasis.

Key words: trypanosome, variable surface glycoprotein, expression regulation, protein structure, immune response

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