The vaccine efficacy of a putative candidate antigen against T. cruzi infection and disease in a mouse model. C57BL/6 mice vaccinated with a T. cruzi G4-encoding plasmid and cytokine (interleukin-12 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) expression plasmids elicited a strong Th1-type antibody response dominated by immunoglobulin G2b (IgG2b)/IgG1 isotypes. The dominant IgG2b/IgG1 antibody response was maintained after a challenge infection and was associated with 90% control of the acute-phase tissue parasite burden and an almost undetectable level of tissue parasites during the chronic phase, as determined by a sensitive T. cruzi 18S rRNA gene-specific real-time PCR approach (Bhatia and Garg, 2008).
