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pubmed:abstractText |
Resistance to complement-mediated lysis in Trypanosoma cruzi is due to the expression of complement-regulatory factors by the virulent developmental forms of this protozoan parasite. An 87- to 93-kDa molecule, which we have termed T-DAF (trypomastigote decay-accelerating factor), is present on the surface of the parasite and inhibits complement activation in a manner functionally similar to the mammalian complement regulatory component, decay-accelerating factor. In this report, we characterized monospecific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies which were obtained from mice and rabbits immunized with fast protein liquid chromatography-purified T-DAF. These polyclonal antibodies were shown to inhibit T-DAF activity and were capable of inducing lysis of the parasites. Both the polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies were used to screen a cDNA expression library prepared from T. cruzi trypomastigote mRNA. From this library, we obtained a partial lambda gt11 cDNA clone which showed genetic and functional similarity to the human C3 convertase inhibitor DAF (A. Nicholson-Weller, J. Burge, D. T. Fearon, P. F. Weller, and K. F. Austen, J. Immunol. 129:184-189, 1982).
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