Background: Technical limitations for culturing the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax have impaired the discovery of vaccine candidates, challenging the malaria eradication agenda. The immunogenicity of the M2 domain of the Merozoite Adhesive Erythrocytic Binding Protein (MAEBL) antigen cloned from the Plasmodium yoelii murine parasite, has been previously demonstrated.
Results: Detailed epitope mapping of MAEBL through immunoinformatics identified several MHCI, MHCII and B cell epitopes throughout the peptide, with several of these lying in the M2 domain and being conserved between P. vivax, P. yoelii and Plasmodium falciparum, hinting that the M2-MAEBL is pan-reactive. This hypothesis was tested through functional assays, showing that P. yoelii M2-MAEBL antisera are able to recognize and inhibit erythrocyte invasion from both P. falciparum and P. vivax parasites isolated from Thai patients, in ex vivo assays. Moreover, the sequence of the M2-MAEBL is shown to be highly conserved between P. vivax isolates from the Amazon and Thailand, indicating that the MAEBL antigen may constitute a vaccine candidate outwitting strain-specific immunity.
Conclusions: The MAEBL antigen is promising candidate towards the development of a malaria vaccine.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5761135 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-2144-x | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Longitudinal analysis of antibody responses to Plasmodium vivax sporozoite antigens following natural infection.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
January 2024
Department of Clinical Microbiology and Applied Technology, Faculty of Medical Technology, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Article Synopsis
- P. vivax malaria significantly impacts health and development in tropical regions, prompting interest in pre-erythrocytic vaccines that could help control or eliminate the disease.
- Researchers evaluated immune responses to five recombinant PE antigens in individuals from low transmission areas in Thailand, finding that certain antibodies surged during infections but declined over time, with some persistence noted.
- The study provided insights into the durability and types of antibody responses, particularly noting that high levels of IgG1 and IgG3 subclasses remained detectable for at least a year post-infection, informing future vaccine development efforts.
Preliminary characterization of Plasmodium vivax sporozoite antigens as pre-erythrocytic vaccine candidates.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
September 2023
Center for Global Health and Interdisciplinary Research, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States of America.
Plasmodium vivax pre-erythrocytic (PE) vaccine research has lagged far behind efforts to develop Plasmodium falciparum vaccines. There is a critical gap in our knowledge of PE antigen targets that can induce functionally inhibitory neutralizing antibody responses. To overcome this gap and guide the selection of potential PE vaccine candidates, we considered key characteristics such as surface exposure, essentiality to infectivity and liver stage development, expression as recombinant proteins, and functional immunogenicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhole genome sequencing of Plasmodium vivax isolates reveals frequent sequence and structural polymorphisms in erythrocyte binding genes.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
October 2020
Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States of America.
Plasmodium vivax malaria is much less common in Africa than the rest of the world because the parasite relies primarily on the Duffy antigen/chemokine receptor (DARC) to invade human erythrocytes, and the majority of Africans are Duffy negative. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the reporting of P. vivax cases in Africa, with a high number of them being in Duffy negative individuals, potentially indicating P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn silico epitope mapping and experimental evaluation of the Merozoite Adhesive Erythrocytic Binding Protein (MAEBL) as a malaria vaccine candidate.
Malar J
January 2018
Laboratory of Tropical Diseases-Prof. Dr. Luiz Jacintho da Silva, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Campinas-UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Background: Technical limitations for culturing the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax have impaired the discovery of vaccine candidates, challenging the malaria eradication agenda. The immunogenicity of the M2 domain of the Merozoite Adhesive Erythrocytic Binding Protein (MAEBL) antigen cloned from the Plasmodium yoelii murine parasite, has been previously demonstrated.
Results: Detailed epitope mapping of MAEBL through immunoinformatics identified several MHCI, MHCII and B cell epitopes throughout the peptide, with several of these lying in the M2 domain and being conserved between P.
AMA1 and MAEBL are important for Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite infection of the liver.
Cell Microbiol
September 2017
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
The malaria sporozoite injected by a mosquito migrates to the liver by traversing host cells. The sporozoite also traverses hepatocytes before invading a terminal hepatocyte and developing into exoerythrocytic forms. Hepatocyte infection is critical for parasite development into merozoites that infect erythrocytes, and the sporozoite is thus an important target for antimalarial intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!