Abstract
Merozoite surface protein 9 (MSP-9) from Plasmodium has shown promise as a vaccine candidate due to its location and possible role in erythrocyte invasion. In this study, we generated virus-like particles (VLPs) targeting P. berghei MSP-9, and investigated the protection against lethal doses of P. berghei in a mouse model. We found that VLP vaccination induced a P. berghei-specific IgG antibody response in the sera and CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations in blood compared to a naïve control group. Upon challenge infection with P. berghei, vaccinated mice showed a significant increase in CD4+ and CD8+ effector memory T cell and memory B cell populations. Importantly, MSP-9 VLP immunization inhibited levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ and IL-6 in the spleen and parasite replication in blood, resulting in significantly prolonged survival time. These results suggest that the MSP-9 VLP vaccine may constitute an effective malaria vaccine.
Highlights
Malaria remains a severe public health problem, causing significant economic losses worldwide.The widespread nature of malaria throughout the tropical and the subtropical regions of the world makes it one of the most important parasitic diseases infecting humans
We evaluated the vaccine efficacies in mice immunized with virus-like particles (VLPs) containing apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA-1) of Plasmodium berghei [23]
These results indicate that the MSP‐9 VLP vaccine contributed to a significant increase in transmission electron microscope (TEM)
Summary
Malaria remains a severe public health problem, causing significant economic losses worldwide.The widespread nature of malaria throughout the tropical and the subtropical regions of the world makes it one of the most important parasitic diseases infecting humans. The most recently developed recombinant vaccine RTS,S/AS01 was engineered by fusing the proteins expressed by repeat and T cell epitope genes in the pre-erythrocytic circumsporozoite protein (CSP) of the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite with the viral envelope protein of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg), and has undergone Phase 3 clinical trials [2,3]. This recombinant malaria vaccine with an adjuvant (RTS, S/AS01) showed low to moderate efficacy (26–50%) in children with multiple immunizations of four injections [2,3]. Manufactured malaria vaccines have low efficacy and alternative vaccine study is urgently needed
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