Comparative levels of clinical resistance observed in different groups of control and vaccinated rhesus macaques over time post-infection.

†The stage of L. infantum visceral infection detected at each assessment was assigned to one of the following categories: SP, sub-patent infection (i.e., low tissue parasitism and clinical score ≤3); AP, asymptomatic patent infection (i.e., steady detection of parasite-positive specimens and clinical score ≤3); S, symptomatic patent infection (i.e., steady detection of parasite-positive specimens and clinical score ≤3). PBS, as negative control; rA2/rhIL-12/alum, recombinant A2 protein (rA2) plus recombinant human IL-12 (rhIL-12) adsorbed in alum; rhIL-12/alum, rhIL-12 adsorbed in alum (adjuvant control); Ad5-A2+rA2/rhIL-12/alum, recombinant adenovirus 5 encoding A2 gene (Ad5-A2) followed by rA2/rhIL-12/alum; Ad5-ASP-2+rhIL-12/alum, recombinant adenovirus 5 encoding ASP-2 gene (Ad5-ASP-2) followed by rhIL-12/alum (adjuvant control); DNA-A2+Ad5-A2, plasmidial DNA encoding A2 gene (DNA-A2) followed by Ad5-A2; DNA-wt+Ad5-ASP-2, wild type plasmidial DNA (DNA-wt) followed by Ad5-ASP-2. Additional, details of vaccination protocols are presented in Table 1 and Figure 1.