Polymorphism and epitope sharing between the alleles of merozoite surface protein-1 of Plasmodium falciparum among Indian isolates.

Background: The C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) is one of the leading candidates for vaccination against the erythrocytic stages of malaria. However, a major concern in the development of MSP-1 based malaria vaccine is the polymorphism observed in different geographical Plasmodium falciparum isolates. To explore whether the sequence heterogeneity of PfMSP-1 leads to variation in naturally acquired anti-MSP-119 antibodies, the present study was undertaken to study PfMSP-119 sequence polymorphism in malaria-endemic villages in eastern India and also carried out a competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using three PfMSP-119 variant forms.