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Expression of Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 STEVOR proteins for evaluation of antibody responses following malaria infections in naïve infants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2007

N. SCHREIBER
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
A. KHATTAB
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
M. PETTER
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
F. MARKS
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany International Vaccine Institute, Kwanak PO Box 14, Seoul 151-600, South Korea
S. ADJEI
Affiliation:
Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, KNUST University Post Office, Kumasi, Ghana
R. KOBBE
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
J. MAY
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
M.-Q. KLINKERT*
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
*
*Corresponding author: Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany. Tel: +49 40 42818301. Fax: +49 40 42818400. E-mail: mo.klinkert@bni-hamburg.de

Summary

Clinical immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria develops after repeated exposure to the parasite. At least 2 P. falciparum variant antigens encoded by multicopy gene families (var and rif) are targets of this adaptive antibody-mediated immunity. A third multigene family of variant antigens comprises the stevor genes. Here, 4 different stevor sequences were selected for cloning and expression in Escherichia coli and His6–tagged fusion proteins were used for assessing the development of immunity. In a cross-sectional analysis of clinically immune adults living in a malaria endemic area in Ghana, high levels of anti-STEVOR IgG antibody titres were determined in ELISA. A cross-sectional study of 90 nine-month-old Ghanaian infants using 1 recombinant STEVOR showed that the antibody responses correlated positively with the number of parasitaemia episodes. In a longitudinal investigation of 17 immunologically naïve 9-month-old infants, 3 different patterns of anti-STEVOR antibody responses could be distinguished (high, transient and low). Children with high anti-STEVOR-antibody levels exhibited an elevated risk for developing parasitaemia episodes. Overall, a protective effect could not be attributed to antibodies against the STEVOR proteins chosen for the study presented here.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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