Enhanced antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum Pfs28 induced in mice by conjugation to ExoProtein A of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with an improved procedure.
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.
Qian
Feng
F
Malaria Vaccine Development Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. fqian_cn@hotmail.com
Aebig
Joan A
JA
Reiter
Karine
K
Barnafo
Emma
E
Zhang
Yanling
Y
Shimp
Richard L
RL
Rausch
Kelly M
KM
Jones
David S
DS
Zhu
Daming
D
Lambert
Lynn
L
Mullen
Gregory E D
GE
Narum
David L
DL
Miller
Louis H
LH
Wu
Yimin
Y
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
D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D017780:Malaria Vaccines; D018074:Vaccines, Conjugate