Dra. Cecilia Pérez Brandán
Investigadora Adjunta
IPE-CONICET-UNSa

"Exploring the performance of engineered outer membrane vesicles as a vaccine platform for chagas disease".

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), are nano-spheres release from the surface of Gram-negative bacteria. They symbolize a promising and versatile implement due to their adjuvant and antigenic properties and their use as delivery platforms in the development of vaccines against several diseases. However, and up to date, this approach has not been address for intracellular parasites belonging to the Trypanosomatidae family. Trypanosoma cruzi is a flagellar parasite with the ability to invade any mammalian cell and cause serious effects in the host leading to the development of Chagas Disease. A wide spectrum of vaccine formulations has been evaluated over the years with the intention to prevent the disease. However, protection achieved by these means is still very limited. Here we present an alternative platform consisting of OMVs derived from a non-pathogenic, bioengineered Escherichia coli strain expressing a T. cruzi antigen, for the development of a new vaccine for Chagas Disease. We demonstrate the efficacy of OMVs displaying Tc24 protein as a protective immunogen structure after lethal challenge with virulent parasites. To the best of our knowledge, these findings provide the first evidence for the utility and effectiveness of engineered-personalized OMVs as an immunogenic delivery platform for trypanosomatid infections.