title: Antigenic diversity of the Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite protein in parasite isolates of Western Colombia.
abstract: Circumsporozoite (CS) protein is a malaria antigen involved in sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes, and thus considered to have good vaccine potential. We evaluated the polymorphism of the Plasmodium vivax CS gene in 24 parasite isolates collected from malaria-endemic areas of Colombia. We sequenced 27 alleles, most of which (25/27) corresponded to the VK247 genotype and the remainder to the VK210 type. All VK247 alleles presented a mutation (Gly → Asn) at position 28 in the N-terminal region, whereas the C-terminal presented three insertions: the ANKKAGDAG, which is common in all VK247 isolates; 12 alleles presented the insertion GAGGQAAGGNAANKKAGDAG; and 5 alleles presented the insertion GGNAGGNA. Both repeat regions were polymorphic in gene sequence and size. Sequences coding for B-, T-CD4(+), and T-CD8(+) cell epitopes were found to be conserved. This study confirms the high polymorphism of the repeat domain and the highly conserved nature of the flanking regions.
authors.affiliation: Malaria Vaccine and Drug Development Center, Cali, Colombia. miangher@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Miguel Ángel
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Hernández-Martínez
authors.forename: Ananías A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Escalante
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arévalo-Herrera
authors.forename: Sócrates
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herrera
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016645:Aotidae; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058974:Phylogeography; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D034101:Sporozoites / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C041595:circumsporozoite protein, Protozoan