Protective immune responses against systemic candidiasis mediated by phage-displayed specific epitope of Candida albicans heat shock protein 90 in C57BL/6J mice

Specific epitope (DEPAGE) of Candida albicans heat shock protein 90 (SE-CA-HSP90) was successfully expressed on the surface of filamentous phage fd, fused to the major coat protein pVIII. Protective immune responses mediated by hybrid-phage expressing SE-CA-HSP90 in C57BL/6J mice were evaluated in this paper. The results showed that hybrid-phage particles induced the specific antibody response against SE-CA-HSP90, enhanced delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response, natural killer (NK) cell activity and concanavalin A (ConA)-induced splenocyte proliferation. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that hybrid-phage-immunized mice had fewer colony forming unites (CFU) in the kidneys compared with wild-type phage-immunized mice and TE (1.0 mM EDTA, 0.01M Tris–HCl, pH 8.0)-injected mice and showed statistically significant survival advantage over TE-injected group. In conclusion, the results suggest that the hybrid-phage displaying SE-CA-HSP90 may be considered as a potential candidate for producing vaccines against systemic candidiasis.