Improvement of the synthetic tri-peptide vaccine (S3Pvac) against porcine Taenia solium cysticercosis in search of a more effective, inexpensive and manageable vaccine.

Vaccination of pigs may curtail Taenia solium transmission by reducing the number of cysticerci, the precursors of adult intestinal tapeworms in humans. Several antigen preparations induce protection against porcine cysticercosis in experimental settings but only one subunit vaccine (S3Pvac) has been tested and proved effective in the field against naturally acquired disease. Besides improving of the vaccine's effectiveness, significant reductions in production costs and in the logistics of its administration are necessary for the feasibility of nationwide control programs.

Recombinant bacteriophage-based multiepitope vaccine against Taenia solium pig cysticercosis.

The aim of this study was to test the capacity of recombinant phages to deliver antigens for vaccination against porcine cysticercosis. Thus, three peptides (KETc1, KETc12, GK1) and a recombinant antigen KETc7, previously proven to induce high levels of protection against pig cysticercosis, were expressed on the surface of the M13 bacteriophage at multiple copies. The pool of these four recombinant phages induced high levels of protection against an experimental murine cysticercosis.