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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.