A new Leishmania-specific hypothetical protein and its non-described specific B cell conformational epitope applied in the serodiagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis

The serodiagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) presents problems related to its sensitivity and/or specificity. In the present study, a new Leishmania-specific hypothetical protein, LiHyD, was produced as a recombinant protein (rLiHyD) and evaluated in ELISA experiments for the CVL serodiagnosis. LiHyD was characterized as antigenic in a recent immunoproteomic search performed with Leishmania infantum proteins and the sera of dogs developing visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Aiming to compare the efficacy between whole proteins and synthetic peptides, two linear and one conformational B cell epitopes of LiHyD were synthesized and also evaluated as diagnostic markers. The four antigens were recognized by the sera of dogs suffering VL. On the contrary, low reactivity was observed when they were assayed with sera from non-infected healthy dogs living in endemic or non-endemic areas of leishmaniasis. In addition, no reactivity was found against them using sera from dogs experimentally infected by Trypanosoma cruzi, Babesia canis, or Ehrlichia canis, or sera from animals vaccinated with the Leish-Tec® vaccine, a prophylactic preparation commercially available for CVL prevention in Brazil. As comparative diagnostic tools, a recombinant version of the amastigote-specific A2 protein and a soluble crude Leishmania extract were studied. Both antigens presented lower sensitivity and/or specificity values than the LiHyD-based products. The rLiHyD presented better results for the CVL serodiagnosis than its linear epitopes, although the peptide recreating the conformational epitope resulted also appropriate as a diagnostic marker of CVL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study showing the use of a conformational epitope derived from a Leishmania protein for serodiagnosis of CVL.