title: Ficolin-A Enhances Inhibition of the C-Terminal 19 kDa Region of Merozoite Surface Protein-1 of Plasmodium berghei Using Test In Vivo.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malaria remains a serious public health problem with significant morbidity and mortality. This study was conducted to identify whether ficolin-A could play an active role of against malaria infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  The function of ficolin-A was analyzed in mouse model. The open reading frame of ficolin-A was cloned from the liver of new born C57BL/6 mice by RT-PCR and then inserted into the expression vector of eukaryon to construct pVAX1-ficolin-A plasmid. Meanwhile, the open reading frame of the 19-kDa fragment of merozoite surface protein-1 of Plasmodium berghei (MSP119) was cloned and then the expression vector of eukaryon, pVAX1- MSP119 was constructed. Both recombinant vectors were used in the mouse model of infection by Plasmodium berghei.
  
  
  RESULTS
  pVAX1-ficolin-A alone could not significantly suppress parasite density and prolong survival time of infection mice; however, when injected pVAX1-ficolin-A and pVAX1-MSP119 together, the percent of invasion by Plasmodium was decreased (from 43.78% to 22.23% at 10 day after infection, compared to vector) and the survival time was prolonged significantly in the infection mouse model (P=0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ficolin-A can enhance the immunoprotection of MSP119, it implies ficolin-A may be used as immunoenhancer in the study of vaccine defending malaria.
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Life Sciences, Hubei University, 368 Youyi Road, Wuchang, Wuhan 430062, China ; Fan Chen and Qiang Liu are co-primary authors.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Yh
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Fy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Gh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: Ficolin-A; MSP119; Plasmodium berghei