Low genetic diversity and strong immunogenicity within the apical membrane antigen-1 of Plasmodium ovale spp. imported from Africa to China.

Low genetic diversity and strong immunogenicity within the apical membrane antigen-1 of Plasmodium ovale spp. imported from Africa to China. Acta Trop. 2020 Jun 17;:105591 Authors: Lei Y, Shen F, Zhu H, Zhu L, Chu R, Tang J, Yao W, Zhu G, Zhang D, Cao J, Cheng Y Abstract Malaria is still an important challenge for global public health because of its extensive mortality and morbidity. Plasmodium ovale is mainly distributed in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. it includes two distinct ovale malaria species, which are P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri. Apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) is an asexual blood-stage protein which is essential for Plasmodium. Thus far, no study on gene polymorphism and immunogenicity of P. ovale AMA-1 (PoAMA-1) has been conducted. Amplified poama1 gene products from 14 P. ovale curtisi samples and 12 P. ovale wallikeri samples imported from Africa to Jiangsu Province, China were sequenced and their polymorphisms were analyzed. We expressed recombinant PoAMA-1 (rPoAMA-1, 53 kDa) proteins in an Escherichia coli expression system and evaluated immune responses against the rPoAMA-1 in BALB/c mice. We identified a synonymous mutation in nucleotide position 333 of the pocama-1 gene and powama-1 did not reveal any variation. The humoral and cellular immune responses to rPoAMA-1 were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry. rPoAMA-1-immunized mice produced specific antibo...
Source: Acta Tropica - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Acta Trop Source Type: research