Cestode vaccine

The future is bright for anti-cestode vaccines. At present, there seems no scientific reason... 

Potential Practical Impact of Vaccination Against Cestode Parasites.296... 

Vaccines to assist with control of taeniid cestode infections would be most easily applied in the parasites definitive hosts because generally these are fewer in number and more readily accessed than are the intermediate hosts. However, there is little evidence of host-protective immune responses against Taenia and Echinococcus species in their definitive hosts and attempts to induce protective immune responses have been unreliable... 

Lightowlers, M.W. (1990) Cestode infections in animals immunological diagnosis and vaccination. Revue Scientifique et Technique Office International des Epizooties 9, 463 187. 

Lightowlers, M.W., Colebrook, A.L., Gauci, C.G., Gauci, S.M., Kyngdon, C.T., Monkhouse, J.L., Vallejo Rodriquez, C., Read, A.J., Rolfe, R.A. and Sato, C. (2003a) Vaccination against cestode parasites antihelminth vaccines that work and why. Veterinary Parasitology 1 1 5, 83-1 23. 

Fractionation of soluble proteins from cestodes has revealed, in addition to other components, a variety of lipoprotein and glycoprotein conjugates. Many of these complexes are antigenic, and much effort, particularly in taeniid cestodes, has focussed on trying to isolate and characterise these antigens with a view to using them in specific immunodiagnosis and possibly as vaccines (690, 962 Chapter 11). 

The development of vaccines against the adult stage of all pathogenic cestode species thus remains a major challenge. 

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