Evaluation of the affinity antibodies induced by Plasmodium vivax multi-antigen based formulations in mice

• Grant number: 22/03587-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date until: May 01, 2022
• End date until: February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Protozoology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Irene da Silva Soares
• Grantee: Camila Verholeak Maffetano
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 12/13032-5 - Generation and analysis of the immunogenicity of recombinant proteins based on the different allelic forms of the circumsporozoite antigen of Plasmodium vivax aiming at the development of a universal vaccine against malaria, AP.TEM

Abstract

Malaria is considered a serious problem of public health, which can cause severe forms and lead to death, mainly among children under 5 years of age living in Sub-Saharan Africa. In America, an infection caused by Plasmodium vivax represents 74.1% of cases, currently, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Due to the increase in drug and insecticide resistance, the development of a vaccine formulation against this parasite is of great importance to its control and eradication. Due to the complexity of the parasite's life cycle and invasion strategies, vaccine formulations containing more than one antigen from different stages of P. vivax have been explored. Previous studies from our group described the importance of proteins such as MSP119 and CSP as immunodominant antigens. Thereby, the present work proposes to evaluate the magnitude of the antibody response, as well their affinity in C57BL/6 mice sera immunized with a new recombinant chimeric protein involving the two antigens (yPvCSP-MSP119), expressed in Pichia pastoris yeasts, in the presence of the adjuvant Poly(I:C). (AU)