Evaluation of Immunogenicity : Malaria Subunit Vaccine

疟疾是一种热带寄生虫病，对世界大部分地区的健康构成重大威胁。每年约有5亿人感染，其中200万人死亡。很有必要控制这种疾病的传播。疟疾疫苗开发的主要重点之一是使用来自寄生虫不同发育阶段的重组蛋白。本研究的目的是增强对MSP-1C末端亚基的免疫应答。将评估几种临床相关佐剂与MSP-1 p42亚基联合时引发适当免疫反应的能力。此外，p42亚基将被重新设计以包含保守的t细胞表位，以努力将抗体反应集中在保守的p19区域。识别能够增强对MSP-1 p42抗原有效免疫应答的佐剂形成的能力和/或通过改进亚基设计增强对p19免疫应答的能力，将有助于将MSP-1 c端亚基开发成可行的疟疾疫苗产品。建议的商业应用：疟疾对全世界的健康构成重大威胁。目前，还没有疟疾疫苗。拟议的研究重点是改进疟疾亚单位疫苗。为MSP-1p42亚基鉴定合适的临床相关佐剂和/或通过聚焦t细胞帮助增强p42亚基的免疫原性的能力将有助于开发有效的疟疾亚基疫苗。

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.