The recombinant protein rPb27 represents an attractive candidate due to its great potential to control

This disease as it was demonstrated in previous work, in which this protein showed a significant degree of protection in the lungs, livers and spleens of mice immunized with it and posteriorly challenged with a virulent strain of P. brasiliensis. In this same work it was shown that this protein is component of F0 fraction of this fungus. This fraction had already demonstrated protective ability in experimental PCM. The association of imunotherapeutics and antiLY2109761 TGF-beta inhibitor fungal agents to treat PCM has also been investigated. The administration of the peptide P10, a 15-amino acid peptide identified in the glycoprotein Gp43, that have already shown the capacity to elicit the secretion of Th1 type cytokines, as an adjuvant to the chemicals used in the PCM therapy, showed an improvement of the therapeutic effectiveness of some antifungal agents. In this work we evaluated the immunotherapeutic potential of rPb27 immunization with or without fluconazole chemotherapy to treat PCM as well as the cytokines profile and IgG isotypes production induced by this combined treatment in experimental PCM using BALB/c mice. Considering the increase in the worldwide incidence of fungal infections, the development of new therapies for these diseases has become of great importance to public health. The current therapy to treat mycosis is based on polienes and azoles, depending on the severity of the infection. To treat severe cases of PCM amphotericin B followed by itraconazole and sulfametoxazole are indicated. The main disadvantage of using amphotericin B is its occasional toxicity. In the case of itraconazole or sulfametoxazole, the long period of treatment required may cause patients to quit medication, possibly leading to recurrence of disease. Given these dificulties, new approaches to the treatment of systemic fungal infections need to be developed. Alternative strategies to conventional chemotherapy for fungal diseases have been explored. Combined therapy of immunotherapeutics and antifungal agents in the treatment of PCM has been investigated, and have demonstrated a great potential to enhance antifungal effect and to prevent relapses. Here we reported the efficacy of rPb27 immunization combined with fluconazole chemotherapy in the treatment of PCM. rPb27 is a recombinant protein that was firstly described by McEwen and coworkers, and have demonstrated a great potential in immunodiagnosis of PCM and as a vaccine candidate against this mycosis, as demonstrated in previous work, in which the immunization with this protein showed a significant degree of protection in the lungs, livers and spleens of mice posteriorly challenged with a virulent strain of P. brasiliensis. In this work the expression and purification of this protein showed a single protein with approximatelly 27 kDa of molecular mass. After 40 and 90 days of treatment the fungal load was examined in lungs.