Evaluation of Immunogenicity : Malaria Subunit Vaccine

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Malaria is a tropical parasitic disease that poses a significant health threat to much of the world. Each year, approximately 500 million become infected and more them 2 million die. There is great need to control the spread of the disease. One of the main focuses of malaria vaccine development has been on the use of recombinant proteins derived from the various developmental stages of the parasite. The goal of the proposed research is to enhance the immune response to MSP-1C- terminal subunits. Several clinically relevant adjuvants will be evaluated for the ability to elicit an appropriate immune response when combined with an MSP-1 p42 subunit. Additionally, the p42 subunit will be reengineered to contain conserved T-cell epitopes in an effort to focus the antibody response to the conserved p19 region. The ability to identify adjuvant formations that can potentiate an effective immune response to the MSP-1 p42 antigen and/or the ability to enhance the immune response to p19 by improved subunit design would facilitate the development of MSP-1 C-terminal subunits into viable malaria vaccine products. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Malaria poses a significant world-wide health threat. Currently, there is no vaccine for malaria. The proposed research is focused on the improvement of malaria subunit vaccines. The ability to identify suitable clinically relevant adjuvants for the MSP-1p42 subunit and/or enhance the immunogenicity of the p42 subunit by focusing T-cell help would contribute to the development of an effective malaria subunit vaccine.