title: Expression of Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 STEVOR proteins for evaluation of antibody responses following malaria infections in naïve infants.
abstract: Clinical immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria develops after repeated exposure to the parasite. At least 2 P. falciparum variant antigens encoded by multicopy gene families (var and rif) are targets of this adaptive antibody-mediated immunity. A third multigene family of variant antigens comprises the stevor genes. Here, 4 different stevor sequences were selected for cloning and expression in Escherichia coli and His6-tagged fusion proteins were used for assessing the development of immunity. In a cross-sectional analysis of clinically immune adults living in a malaria endemic area in Ghana, high levels of anti-STEVOR IgG antibody titres were determined in ELISA. A cross-sectional study of 90 nine-month-old Ghanaian infants using 1 recombinant STEVOR showed that the antibody responses correlated positively with the number of parasitaemia episodes. In a longitudinal investigation of 17 immunologically naïve 9-month-old infants, 3 different patterns of anti-STEVOR antibody responses could be distinguished (high, transient and low). Children with high anti-STEVOR-antibody levels exhibited an elevated risk for developing parasitaemia episodes. Overall, a protective effect could not be attributed to antibodies against the STEVOR proteins chosen for the study presented here.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khattab
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petter
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adjei
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kobbe
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: M-Q
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Klinkert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005869:Ghana; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C474556:STEVOR antigen, Plasmodium falciparum