| Abstrakt: |
The immunogenicity of a 93-kDaPlasmodium chabaudiprotein that contains glutamate-rich tandem repeats was investigated in this study. Immunoblotting with various monoclonal antibodies indicates that this 93-kDa protein is equivalent to a potentialP. chabaudiRESA analogue. However, the sequence of theP. chabaudiprotein does not exhibit any significant homology to Pf155/RESA. Antibodies against the 93-kDa protein appear early duringP. chabaudiinfection and reach high titers. The highest antibody titers are found when the parasitemia is descending, suggesting that this protein may play some role in immunity. Immunization of mice with the recombinant protein also results in high antibody titers, indicating that the protein is quite immunogenic. However, mice immunized with recombinant protein and challenged withP. chabaudido not exhibit a delayed appearance of parasitemia, a reduced parasitemia, or a shortened duration of parasitemia. Glutamate-richP. falciparumproteins such as Pf155/RESA, are being considered as vaccine candidates. The studies withP. chabaudisuggest that interpretation of serological data using glutamate-rich proteins should proceed with caution. The glutamate-rich repeats, although highly immunogenic, may not be important in host immunity against malaria. However, antibodies that appear late in theP. chabaudiinfection do appear to play a role in anti-malarial immunity. |
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