Decreasing immunogenicity of developing schistosome larvae

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Abstract
Cercariae, skin stage schistosomula and lung stage schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni were attenuated by gamma irradiation and tested for their ability to induce protective immunity against cercarial challenge in C57B1/6J mice. The highest levels of resistance were induced by cercariae administered either percutaneously or i.m. Skin stage schistosomula inoculated i.m. gave less protection while lung stage schistosomula from syngeneic donors were the least immunogenic. A similar ranking in immunogenicity was observed when the anti-skin stage schistosomular antibody responses induced by the different parasite stages were compared. None of the immunization protocols stimulated antibodies capable of recognizing lung stage schistosomula. As schistosome larvae mature from the cercarial to the lung stage, they appear to undergo a substantial loss in immunogenicity. This change may help explain the failure of older larvae to be immunologically destroyed in infected hosts.

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