Comparative study of epitopes recognized by two monoclonal antibodies that protects mice against Trichomonas vaginalis challenge.

Trichomonas vaginalis is a flagellated protozoan which infects the urogenital tract of humans. Previous studies have demonstrated that monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against a 62 kDa proteinase (4D8 and 1A8) decreased cytoadherence of the parasite to epithelial cells in vitro and passive inoculation of mice with two MAbs 24 h before the intraperitoneal challenge resulted in different grade of protections to T. vaginalis infection. In the present paper we describe the characterization of the epitopes recognized by MAbs 4D8 and 1A8. The epitopes were characterized by heat treatment, trichloroacetic acid precipitation, beta-mercaptoethanol treatment, enzymes proteolysis and periodate oxidation. The results showed that the two MAbs 4D8 and 1A8 each react with a different protein epitope of repetitive nature found on the same excretory-secretory molecules of T. vaginalis and it could explain the variation in the protection grade obtained in the challenge experiments.