Abstract
BackgroundLittle information is available on the immunological aspect of parasitic Gasterophilus intestinalis (Diptera, Oestridae) larvae causing horse gastric myiasis. The objectives of this research were to analyze the protein content of larval crude extracts of the migrating second and third larvae (L2 and L3) of G. intestinalis in order to characterize the immune response of horses.ResultsThe proteomic profile of L2 and L3, investigated by using one and two dimensional approaches, revealed a migration pattern specific to each larval stage. Furthermore, Western blots were performed with horse sera and with sera of Balb/c mice immunised with the larval crude extracts of L2 or L3, revealing a different immune reaction in naturally infected horses vs. artificially induced immune reaction in mice. The comparisons of the immunoblot profiles demonstrate that the stage L2 is more immunogenic than the stage L3 most likely as an effect of the highest enzymatic production of L2 while migrating through the host tissues. Fifteen proteins were identified by mass spectrometry.ConclusionThis work provides further information into the understanding of the interaction between G. intestinalis and their host and by contributing a novel scheme of the proteomic profile of the main larval stages.
Highlights
Little information is available on the immunological aspect of parasitic Gasterophilus intestinalis (Diptera, Oestridae) larvae causing horse gastric myiasis
While Gasterophilus intestinalis (De Geer, 1776) and Gasterophilus nasalis (Linnaeus, 1758) are distributed worldwide and are often the only species reported in many parts of the New World, the remaining species are only reported in very limited areas of Europe, Eastern Countries [1] and Africa [2]
This difference in immune reaction explains the fact that most of the L2 and L3 proteins that reacted with mice sera showed a more intense signal when compared with the reaction with horse sera
Summary
Little information is available on the immunological aspect of parasitic Gasterophilus intestinalis (Diptera, Oestridae) larvae causing horse gastric myiasis. Nine species of Gasterophilus (Diptera, Oestridae) flies have been described causing, in the larval stage, gastrointestinal myiasis in equids. Larvae of different species of Gasterophilus are present in one or more regions of the gastrointestinal tract where the third larval stage (L3) remains attached to the mucosa for about 8–10 months [5]. The clinical signs associated with the migration and maturation stages of the larvae are difficult to diagnose, but it has been shown that different species of Gasterophilus can cause severe damages during their life cycle [6,7,8,9]
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