Tailoring a combination pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccine

Journal article

The leading malaria vaccine candidate, RTS,S, based on Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP), will likely be the first publicly adopted malaria vaccine. However, this and other subunit vaccines such as viral-vectored TRAP provide only intermediate to low levels of protection. In this study the Plasmodium berghei homologues of antigens CSP and TRAP are combined. TRAP is delivered using adenoviral- and vaccinia-based vectors in a prime-boost regime. Initially CSP is also delivered using these viral vectors; however, a reduction of anti-CSP antibodies is seen when combined with viral-vectored TRAP and the combination is no more protective than either subunit vaccine alone. Using an adenovirus-CSP prime, protein-CSP boost regime, however, increases anti-CSP antibody titres by an order of magnitude, which is maintained when combined with viral-vectored TRAP. This combination regime using protein CSP provided 100% protection in C57BL/6 mice, compared to no protection using viral-vectored TRAP alone and 40% protection using adenovirus-CSP prime and protein-CSP boost alone. This suggests that a combination of CSP and TRAP subunit vaccines could enhance protection against malaria.

Authors: Bauza, K; Atcheson, E; Malinauskas, T; Blagborough, A; Reyes-Sandoval, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
• Journal: Infection and immunity
• Pages: IAI.01063-15-IAI.01063-15
• Publication date: 2015-12-14
• DOI: 10.1128/IAI.01063-15
• EISSN: 1098-5522
• ISSN: 0019-9567
• Language: English