The genomic sequence of Leishmania major provides a rich source of vaccine candidates. One hundred randomly selected amastigote-expressed genes were screened as DNA vaccines, and efficacy determined following high-dose L. major footpad challenge in BALB/c mice. Fourteen protective novel vaccine candidates were identified; seven vaccines exacerbated disease. There were no differences in the number of predicted MHC H-2d class I or II epitopes mapping to protective versus exacerbatory antigens. A proportion of both protective (7/14; 50%) and exacerbatory (4/7; 57%) proteins showed short (8- to 18-mer) 100% amino acid sequence identities to human, mouse or gut flora proteins. A high proportion of these (4/7 protective; 3/4 exacerbatory) showed full or partial overlap with RANKPEP-predicted H-2d classes I and II epitopes. Our data suggest, therefore, that there may be little difference between antigens/epitopes that drive regulatory versus effector CD4 T cell populations. The best novel protective antigen was an amastin-like gene that maps to a 17-gene tandem array on Leishmania chromosome 8 and is closely related to 37 other amastin-like genes. Two ribosomal proteins, a V-ATPase subunit, and a dynein light chain orthologue were the only other protective genes with putative functions.
