| abstract |
The present invention relates to a recombinant nucleic acid molecule encoding a fusion polypeptide, the recombinant nucleic acid comprising a heterologous polynucleotide sequence encoding an antigen or an antigenic fragment, as well as a Leishmania polynucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide or a fragment of the latter, the Leishmania polynucleotide being selected from the group comprising a TSA polynucleotide, a LeIF polynucleotide, an M15 polynucleotide and a 6H polynucleotide. The invention also relates to an expression cassette comprising said recombinant nucleic acid molecule, host cells comprising this expression cassette, compositions, fusion polypeptides, as well as methods of using the same for for diagnostic purposes or to produce a protective immune response in hosts. |