Immunochemical and functional studies on a novel protein of Plasmodium falciparum containing EGF-like domains

人类感染疟疾是世界上最重要和最致命的传染病之一，每年造成200多万人死亡。传统上，药物和杀虫剂一直用于治疗这种疾病并控制其传播。不幸的是，这两种方法的效果都大不如前，现在存在着无法治愈的疟疾病例。迫切需要其他控制措施，本项目侧重于更好地了解疟疾寄生虫的功能。如果能够详细了解红细胞入侵等重要过程，那么就有可能确定寄生虫生存所必需的蛋白质。然后这些可以用作对抗这种疾病的疫苗。目前的工作表明，这种疫苗将需要一种以上的寄生虫蛋白质，确定成分的最佳组合变得至关重要。被称为MSP1的寄生虫蛋白被认为是一个非常有希望的候选者，但它本身的活性不够。我们最近在人类疟疾寄生虫恶性疟原虫中发现了一种类似于MSP1的新蛋白。我们希望更多地了解这种蛋白，并确定它是否可能是MSP1疫苗的有用补充。该项目打算进一步表征这种新蛋白的特性，包括其在红细胞入侵中的作用，并检查用啮齿动物疟疾形式的蛋白质免疫是否能够保护小鼠免受疟疾感染。这个项目的结果将在疟疾疫苗开发领域具有重要意义，并将表明这种新蛋白质是否将成为最终疟疾疫苗的有用组成部分。

Malaria infection of humans is one of the most important and deadly infectious diseases in the world, killing more than two million people each year. Traditionally, drugs and insecticides have been used to treat the disease and control its spread. Unfortunately, both of these have become much less effective and there now exist untreatable cases of malaria. Alternative control measures are urgently needed and this project focuses on developing a better understanding of how the malaria parasite functions. If important processes such as red blood cell invasion can be understood in detail then it becomes possible to identify proteins essential for survival of the parasite. These could then be used as a vaccine against the disease. Current work suggests that the vaccine will be need more than one parasite protein and it becomes essential to identify the best combination of components. The parasite protein called MSP1 is thought to be a very promising candidate, but it is insufficiently active on its own. We have recently discovered a new protein in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, that is similar to MSP1. We would like to know more about this protein and determine if it may be a useful addition to MSP1 for a vaccine. This project intends to further characterize the properties of this new protein including its role in red blood cell invasion and to examine whether immunization with the rodent malaria form of the protein is able to protect mice against malaria infection. The results of this project will be highly significant in the field of malaria vaccine development and will indicate whether this new protein will be a useful component of the eventual malaria vaccine.