Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses to Synthetic Peptides of the Leishmania donovani Kinetoplastid Membrane Protein‐11

Native kinetoplastid membrane protein‐11 (KMP‐11), purified from crude extracts of Leishmania donovani parasites, activates T cells from individuals who have recovered from visceral leishmaniasis. In this work we used three 38‐mer peptides spanning the amino acid sequence of the L. donovani KMP‐11 as solid‐phase ligands in enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and as stimulating antigens in lymphoproliferative assays in order to evaluate humoral and cellular immune responses to well‐defined sequences of the protein. Antibody reactivity against the three peptides was measured in plasma from 63 Sudanese visceral leishmaniasis patients (VL) and the percentage of patients with anti‐KMP‐11 antibodies in ELISA were 37% (KMP‐11‐1), 30% (KMP‐11‐2) and 58% (KMP‐11‐3). The fraction of VL patients with measurable antibody reactivity in one or more of the three ELISAs was 79%. Cross‐reactivity to the KMP‐11 peptides was detected in plasma from Sudanese patients suffering from Leishmania major infections and in plasma from Sudanese and Danish patients infected with Plasmodium falciparum. In lymphoproliferative assays, 10 of 17 PBMC isolates from donors previously infected with L. donovani showed a response to one or more of the three KMP‐11 peptides.