Malaria Vaccine: AMA1-rEPA

疟疾免疫和疫苗实验室(LMIV)，前身为疟疾疫苗发展处(MVDB)，是NIAID与DMID密切合作的一项倡议，以满足全球对疟疾疫苗的需求。LMIV的任务是通过免疫生物学和疫苗学的基础和临床研究，包括在宿主免疫反应的背景下调查疟疾发病机制，发现和开发疟疾疫苗。为支持这项任务，LMIV将开发新的化验方法和动物模型来评估候选疫苗。LMIV将维持灵活的基础设施，以便能够快速开发和评估新的疟疾候选疫苗。 一种无性血液期疫苗将引发免疫反应，能够摧毁血液中的疟疾寄生虫，或抑制寄生虫感染红细胞。在任何一种情况下，净效果都是减轻或预防寄生虫的负担，从而减少疾病的发生率、严重性或并发症。这种疫苗将针对血液阶段的寄生虫蛋白，因为在持续感染期间，寄生虫会大量表达这些抗原。它将起到为婴儿随后感染的免疫系统做准备的作用，或者它将增强幼儿已经存在但却很弱的自然免疫力。 此前，我们已经证明，在包括恒河猴在内的几个动物物种中，疟疾抗原与载体蛋白的化学偶联大大提高了疟疾抗原的免疫原性和反应寿命。预期将AMA1与重组铜绿假单胞菌外蛋白A(REPA)偶联将提高AMA1的免疫原性。

The Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology (LMIV), formerly The Malaria Vaccine Development Branch (MVDB), is an NIAID initiative working in close collaboration with DMID to respond to the global need for vaccines against malaria. The mission of the LMIV is to discover and develop malaria vaccines through fundamental and clinical research in immunobiology and vaccinology, including investigations of malaria pathogenesis in the context of host immune responses. In support of this mission, the LMIV will develop new assays and animal models to assess vaccine candidates. LMIV will maintain a flexible infrastructure to permit rapid development and evaluation of new malaria vaccine candidates. An asexual blood-stage vaccine will elicit immune responses capable of either destroying malaria parasites in the blood stream or inhibiting parasites from infecting red blood cells. In either case, the net effect is to reduce or prevent burden of parasites and hence decrease the incidence, severity, or the complications of disease. Such a vaccine would target blood-stage parasite proteins since these antigens are abundantly expressed by parasites during persistent infections. It would act to prime the immune system for subsequent infection in infants or it would boost already present, yet weak, natural immunity in young children. Previously we have demonstrated that chemical conjugation of a malaria antigen to a carrier protein greatly increased immunogenicity and response longevity of the malaria antigen in several animal species, including rhesus monkeys. It is anticipated that conjugating AMA1 to recombinant exoprotein A (rEPA) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa would increase immunogenicity of AMA1.