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Differential ability of specific regions of Plasmodium falciparum sexual‐stage antigen, Pfs230, to induce malaria transmission‐blocking immunity
Author(s) -
Patty Bustamante,
D. C. Woodruff,
Jeein Oh,
David B. Keister,
Olga Muratova,
Kim C. Williamson
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
parasite immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1365-3024
pISSN - 0141-9838
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3024.2000.00315.x
Subject(s) - biology , plasmodium falciparum , recombinant dna , immunogenicity , antibody , epitope , amino acid , virology , peptide sequence , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , gene , immunology , malaria
Antibodies raised against an Escherichia coli ‐produced recombinant protein encoding a 76‐kDa section (region C) of malaria transmission‐blocking vaccine candidate, Pfs230, have previously been shown to significantly reduce the ability of Plasmodium falciparum parasites to infect mosquitoes (71.2–89.8%). To further define the region of the Pfs230 required for transmission‐blocking activity, four recombinant proteins each encoding a section of region C (Pfs230 amino acids 443–1132) were produced using the same E. coli expression system and tested for immunogenicity in mice: (i) r230/MBP.C5′ encodes the first half of region C (amino acids 443—791, six cysteines); (ii) r230/MBP.CM1 encodes only cysteine motif (CM) 1 (amino acids 583—913, eight cysteines); (iii) r230/MBP.C1.6 (amino acids 453–913, eight cysteines) also includes all of CM1; and (iv) r230/MBP.C2 encodes only CM2 (amino acids 914–1268, 11 cysteines). All the recombinant proteins induced antibodies that recognized parasite‐produced Pfs230, but the titre of the Pfs230 specific‐antibodies generated varied, C = C1.6 = C5′ > CM1 > CM2. Two recombinants, r230/MBP.C5′ and r230/MBP.C1.6, induced antibody titres that were equivalent to or greater than the titre generated by r230/MBP.C. However, in contrast to r230/MBP.C, none of the recombinants induced antibodies that effectively blocked parasite infectivity to mosquitoes. This suggests that the inclusion of amino acids 914–1132 is important for the production of the transmission‐blocking epitope present in region C .