Evaluation of Two Plasmodium Vivax Sexual Stage Antigens As Transmission-blocking Vaccine Candidates

Overview

Journal Parasit Vectors

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Parasitology
Tropical Medicine

Date 2021 Aug 17

PMID 34399829

Citations 1

Authors

Yongzhe Zhang

Fei Liu

Yan Zhao

Fan Yang

Jie Bai

Xitong Jia

Wanlapa Roobsoong

Jetsumon Sattabongkot

Liwang Cui

Yaming Cao

Enjie Luo

Meilian Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Plasmodium vivax transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs) are receiving increasing attention. Based on excellent transmission-blocking activities of the PbPH (PBANKA_0417200) and PbSOP26 (PBANKA_1457700) antigens in Plasmodium berghei, their orthologs in P. vivax, PVX_098655 (PvPH) and PVX_101120 (PvSOP26), were selected for the evaluation of their potential as TBVs.

Methods: Fragments of PvPH (amino acids 22-304) and PvSOP26 (amino acids 30-272) were expressed in the yeast expression system. The recombinant proteins were used to immunize mice to obtain antisera. The transmission-reducing activities of these antisera were evaluated using the direct membrane feeding assay (DMFA) using Anopheles dirus mosquitoes and P. vivax clinical isolates.

Results: The recombinant proteins PvPH and PvSOP26 induced robust antibody responses in mice. The DMFA showed that the anti-PvSOP26 sera significantly reduced oocyst densities by 92.0 and 84.1% in two parasite isolates, respectively, whereas the anti-PvPH sera did not show evident transmission-reducing activity. The variation in the DMFA results was unlikely due to the genetic polymorphisms of the two genes since their respective sequences were identical in the clinical P. vivax isolates.

Conclusion: PvSOP26 could be a promising TBV candidate for P. vivax, which warrants further evaluation.

Citing Articles

Evaluation of transmission-blocking potential of Pv22 using clinical Plasmodium vivax infections and transgenic Plasmodium berghei.

Bai J, Liu F, Yang F, Zhao Y, Jia X, Thongpoon S Vaccine. 2022; 41(2):555-563.

PMID: 36503858 PMC: 9812905. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.11.058.

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