Alanine mutagenesis of the primary antigenic escape residue cluster, c1, of apical membrane antigen 1.

ABSTRACT: Antibodies against apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) inhibit invasion of Plasmodium merozoites into red cells, and a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms on AMA1 allow the parasite to escape inhibitory antibodies. The availability of a crystal structure makes it possible to test protein engineering strategies to develop a monovalent broadly reactive vaccine. Previously, we showed that a linear stretch of polymorphic residues (amino acids 187 to 207), localized within the C1 cluster on domain 1, conferred the highest level of escape from inhibitory antibodies, and these were termed antigenic escape residues (AER). Here we test the hypothesis that immunodampening the C1 AER will divert the immune system toward more conserved regions. We substituted seven C1 AER of the FVO strain Pl

SUBMITTER: Dutta S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2812209 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature