WHAT:
Now, the NIAID scientists have improved on their original vaccine with a new candidate that delivers AMA1 protein together with part of a second parasite protein called RON2. In a natural infection, malaria parasites use the AMA1-RON2 complex to attach to and invade red blood cells. When injected into mice as a complex, the AMA1-RON2 vaccine prompted robust antibody production and protected the animals from a lethal form of mouse malaria. Moreover, when antibodies produced in response to AMA1-RON2 vaccine were administered to other, non-vaccinated mice, those animals received some protection from infection as well. Further analysis showed that the improved antibody response following AMA1-RON2 vaccination was due to an increased proportion of antibodies aimed directly at the AMA1-RON2 junction, which made them better at inhibiting parasite invasion.
The researchers note that this strategy of vaccination with the functional protein AMA1-RON2 complex could be tested in the next generation of human malaria vaccines. Such vaccines, which would contain multiple AMA1 sequences in complex with RON2, might induce antibodies targeted to a range of genetically diverse malaria parasites.
ARTICLE:
P Srinivasan et al. Immunization with a functional protein complex required for erythrocyte invasion protects against lethal malaria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1409928111 (2014).
WHO:
CONTACT:
Visit NIAID's Malaria webpage for more news and information ( http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/malaria/Pages/default.aspx ).
NOTE: A full version of this paper will be available after 3 p.m. Eastern Time Monday, June 23 ( http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1409928111 ).
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences