Efficacy of asexual blood-stage antigens and antigen combinations for vaccination of mice against Plasmodium chabaudi.

研制疟疾疫苗是世界主要公共卫生优先事项之一。过去二十年来，在研制疟疾疫苗方面取得了很大进展，但目前还没有适合人类使用的疫苗。已经确定了许多寄生虫分子，它们被认为是疟疾疫苗的潜在组成部分，其中一些已经达到了在早期临床试验中进行测试的阶段。然而，疟疾疫苗开发领域面临的一个主要问题是寻找必要的资源来测试被认为具有潜在价值的大量抗原和抗原组合。获得有助于确定哪些抗原和抗原组合应该优先用于临床试验的信息的一种方法是在猴子或小鼠中使用感染这些物种的疟疾寄生虫进行疫苗试验。我们将在小鼠中使用恰布迪疟原虫感染来检测三种抗原的能力，这些抗原来自引起疟原虫血液阶段的疾病，以诱导抗体反应，防止严重疟疾的发展。我们将确定当小鼠受到多种寄生虫菌株的攻击时，抗原组合是否比单一抗原提供更好的保护。将对抗体反应进行详细分析，以确定结合抗原是否会以有助于或妨碍疫苗效力的方式改变反应。

The development of a vaccine against malaria is one of the world's major public health priorities. Over the last two decades much progress has been made towards the development of a malaria vaccine but none is yet available that is suitable for use in humans. Many parasite molecules have been identified that are considered potential components of a malaria vaccine and some of these have already reach the stage of being tested in early clinical trials. However, a major problem confronting the field of malaria vaccine development is finding the resources necessary to test the large number of antigens and antigen combinations that are considered of potential value. One way to gain information that will help to determine which antigens and antigen combinations should have priority for testing in clinical trials is to carry out vaccine trials in monkeys or mice using malaria parasites that infect these species. We will use Plasmodium chabaudi infections in the mouse to examine the ability of three antigens from the disease causing blood stages of the parasite to induce antibody responses that prevent the development of severe malaria. We will determine whether antigen combinations provide better protection than single antigens when mice are challenged with a variety of parasite strains. Detailed analyses of the antibody responses will be carried out to determine if combining antigens changes the response in a way that may help or hinder vaccine efficacy.