Study of Humoral Responses against / spp. and to Identify Antigens of Interest for Diagnosis and Treatment.

The high mortality rates of infections are due, above all, to the tendency of the fungus to infect weakened hosts, late diagnosis and a lack of effective therapeutic treatments. To identify proteins of significance for diagnosis, therapy or prophylaxis, immunoproteomics-based studies are especially important. Consequently, in this study murine disseminated infections were carried out using , , and , and their sera used to identify the most immunoreactive proteins of total extract and secreted proteins. The results showed that was the most virulent species and its infections were characterized by a high fungal load in several organs, including the brain. The proteomics study showed a high cross-reactivity between species, but not with . Among the antigens identified were, proteasomal ubiquitin receptor, carboxypeptidase, Vps28, HAD-like hydrolase, GH16, cerato-platanin and a protein of unknown function that showed no or low homology with humans. Finally, Hsp70 deserves a special mention as it was the main antigen recognized by species in both secretome and total extract. In conclusion, this study identifies antigens of that can be considered as potential candidates for use in diagnosis and as therapeutic targets and the production of vaccines.