CONCISE COMMUNICATIONS Identi®cation of Trichomonas vaginalis a-Actinin as the Most Common Immunogen Recognized by Sera of Women Exposed to the Parasite

A study on presence of antibodies to Trichomonis vaginalis in serum was done on a group of 500 pregnant, asymptomatic Angolan women. A serologic screening, done by ELISA, revealed that 41 % of the women had IgG and IgM against the parasite. Analysis of sera by immunoblotting revealed that 94.4 % of sera with anti-T. vaginalis IgG class antibodies were reactive against a common immunogenic protein of 115 kDa. The common immunogen was identi®ed as the protozoan a-actinin. All sera recognizing the 115-kDa antigen were reactive against both native and recombinant T. vaginalis a-actinin and nonreactive against human a-actinin. The ®ndings presented in this work offer a new tool for epidemiologic studies and open new perspectives for vaccination. Trichomoniasis is the most diffused nonviral sexually trans-mitted disease worldwide [1], characterized by a severe discom-fort with in¯ammation and abdominal pain [2], although the infection may often be asymptomatic, leading to underesti-mation of the disease diffusion. During pregnancy, trichomo-niasis can lead to adverse pregnancy outcome, manifested wit