Design and Evaluation of a Plasmodium vivax ultra-dense peptide array

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The malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax threatens half of the world's population. While on-going elimination efforts are successfully reducing the burden of falciparum malaria worldwide, the situation is much less promising for P. vivax. This discrepancy is partially due to our poor understanding of the biology of P. vivax that is difficult to study in the laboratory. Thus, a better understanding of the parasite proteins recognized by our immune system could guide vaccine development, enable more rigorous assessments of transmission and exposure, and allow the identification of individuals carrying dormant parasites. Unfortunately, analyses of the seroreactivity of P. vivax proteins have been limited to, at best, a few hundred proteins, and those typically derive from blood-stage parasites. We propose here to leverage extensive genomic and transcriptomic data generated by us and others to generate a comprehensive list of putative protein-coding transcripts expressed throughout the life cycle of the parasites. We will design and evaluate the seroreactivity of all those proteins using a high-density peptide array and serum samples that have been extensively characterized. Our studies will provide a comprehensive perspective on the P. vivax proteins recognized by the host during an infection, and constitute a solid foundation for identifying vaccine candidates and biomarkers for measuring exposure and transmission, as well as potentially, markers associated with the presence of dormant parasites in the liver.