Measurement of the plasma levels of antibodies against the polymorphic vaccine candidate apical membrane antigen 1 in a malaria-exposed population.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Establishing antibody correlates of protection against malaria in human field studies and clinical trials requires, amongst others, an accurate estimation of antibody levels. For polymorphic antigens such as apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1), this may be confounded by the occurrence of a large number of allelic variants in nature.

Methods

To test this hypothesis, plasma antibody levels in an age-stratified cohort of naturally exposed children from a malaria-endemic area in Southern Ghana were determined by indirect ELISA. Titres against four single PfAMA1 alleles were compared with those against three different allele mixtures presumed to have a wider repertoire of epitope specificities. Associations of antibody levels with the incidence of clinical malaria as well

SUBMITTER: Kusi KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3317819 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature