title: Enhanced antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum Pfs28 induced in mice by conjugation to ExoProtein A of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with an improved procedure.
abstract: In this paper we report our efforts to enhance the immunogenicity of Pfs28, a transmission blocking vaccine candidate of Plasmodium falciparum, using a strategy of chemical conjugation. With an improved procedure, Pfs28 was covalently coupled to the mutant and non-toxic ExoProtein A of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by the reaction between thiolated antigen and maleimide modified carrier protein. The optimized process resulted in a higher antigen-carrier conjugation ratio, and the conjugation product could be purified using single-step size-exclusion chromatography. A significant increase in immunogenicity measured by ELISA was observed in mice immunized with conjugated Pfs28 as compared to unconjugated Pfs28.
authors.affiliation: Malaria Vaccine Development Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. fqian_cn@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Joan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Aebig
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barnafo
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Shimp
authors.forename: Kelly M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Rausch
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Daming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Gregory E D
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Narum
authors.forename: Louis H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Yimin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D017780:Malaria Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000276:immunology*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000276:immunology*; D018074:Vaccines, Conjugate / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D017780:Malaria Vaccines; D018074:Vaccines, Conjugate