Schistosomiasis is a major health problem in the developing world and for international travelers to the endemic countries. Existing strategies to control schistosomiasis have had limited successes so far. The addition of an effective vaccine in existing control measures would be greatly beneficial in reducing the impact of the disease. In this regard, Sm-p80 mediated protection against intestinal schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma mansoni has been observed to be promising in two animal models of infection and disease. In this study, the role of antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) was deciphered in Sm-p80-mediated protection especially in the elimination of lung stage schistosomula. This was achieved using lung lavage cells and lung cells that were isolated from mice immunized with and without Sm-p80 formulated in a recombinant vaccine formulation. Significant differences were observed in cytotoxicity assays using immune sera with the lung lavage cells which showed 51% more killing of schistosomula and elevated levels of nitric oxide in the supernatants were detected compared to controls.
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