Introduction

Protozoan parasites of the Order Trypanosomatida infect a wide range of multicellular plants and animals, causing devastating and potentially fatal diseases. Trypanosomes are the most relevant members of the order in sub-Saharan Africa because of mortalities and morbidities caused to humans and livestock.

Purpose

There are growing concerns that trypanosomes are expanding their reservoirs among wild animals, which habours the parasites, withstand the infection, and from which tsetse flies transmit the parasites back to humans and livestock. This study was designed to investigate the potentials of the African hedgehog serving as reservoir for African animal trypanosomes.

Methods

Five adult hedgehogs alongside five laboratory mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with 10⁶ and 10⁴ of Trypanosoma congolense cells, respectively, and monitored for parasitemia and survival. Serum from twenty hedgehogs was subjected to trypanocidal activity-guided fractionation by successive ion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatographies, followed by characterization with Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).

Results

Hedgehogs were resistant to the infection as no parasite was detected and none died even after 60 days, while all the mice died within 12 days. Both the serum and plasma prepared from hedgehogs demonstrated trypanocidal activity- rapidly killed trypanosomes even when diluted 1000 times. The trypanolytic factor was identified to be proteinaceous with an estimated molecular weight of 115-kDa.

Conclusion

For the first time, it is here demonstrated that hedgehog blood has significant trypanolytic activity against T. congolense. The potential application of the hedgehog protein for the breeding of trypanosomosis-resistant livestock in tsetse fly belt is discussed.

中文翻译：

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非洲刺猬Atelerix albiventris的血液中含有115 kDa的锥虫溶解蛋白，可杀死锥虫。

介绍

锥虫目的原生动物寄生虫感染多种多细胞动植物，引起毁灭性和潜在的致命性疾病。锥虫是该撒哈拉以南非洲地区最重要的成员，因为对人畜造成的死亡和发病率。

目的

人们越来越担心锥虫会在野生动物中扩大它们的水库，因为它具有寄生虫的特性，可以抵抗感染，采采蝇从中将寄生虫传播回人类和牲畜。这项研究旨在调查非洲刺猬作为非洲动物锥虫库的潜力。

方法

五个成人刺猬旁边5只实验室小鼠腹膜内接种10 ⁶和10 ⁴的刚果锥虫细胞，分别并监测寄生虫血症和存活。通过连续的离子交换和凝胶过滤色谱法对二十只刺猬的血清进行锥虫灭活活性分级分离，然后用十二烷基硫酸钠聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳（SDS-PAGE）进行表征。

结果

刺猬对感染有抵抗力，因为没有发现寄生虫，即使60天后也没有死亡，而所有小鼠都在12天之内死亡。由刺猬制备的血清和血浆均显示出锥虫杀灭活性，即使稀释1000倍也能迅速杀死锥虫。锥虫分解因子被鉴定为蛋白质，估计分子量为115-kDa。

结论

这是第一次，在这里证实，刺猬血具有抗显著trypanolytic活动T. congolense。讨论了刺猬蛋白在采采蝇带抗锥虫病家畜育种中的潜在应用。