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EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF CHLOROPLAST-DERIVED ANTIGENSAGAINST MALARIA
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TitleEVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF CHLOROPLAST-DERIVED ANTIGENSAGAINST MALARIA
AuthorSchreiber, Melissa
KeywordsMalaria
Plants
Immunology
AbstractMalaria is the most prevalent vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide and a major cause of death from infections. There is a great need to develop a low cost vaccine for malaria to control transmission of infection and impact of disease, due to the emergence of anti-malarial resistance. Two leading blood stage malarial vaccine candidates are the apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1). The aim of this project is to express malarial antigens in tobacco plants via plastid transformation and deliver them by subcutaneous or oral gavage of minimally processed transplastomic tissue to evaluate their efficacy to elicit an immune response and protect against malarial infection. Transplastomic lines expressing the malarial antigens fused to the transmucosal carrier Cholera toxin B subunit (CTB-AMA-1) and CTB-MSP-1 were generated. CTB-AMA-1 and CTB-MSP-1 accumulated up to 9.5% and 2% of the total soluble protein, respectively. Chloroplast-derived CTB-AMA-1, CTB-MSP-1, or both antigens were administered to BALB/c mice orally or by subcutaneous injections. The immune response in the experimental animals compared to the control animals was found to be significant. Using an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and immunoblot, anti-AMA-1 and anti-MSP-1 found in sera of immunized mice recognized the native parasite and the native parasite protein, respectively. Anti-malarial antibodies inhibited parasite invasion into erythrocytes by utilizing an in vitro parasite inhibition assay. Results of these investigations may lead to a cost-effective malarial vaccine, much needed in developing nations.
AdviserChakrabarti, Debopam
PublisherUniversity of Central Florida
DegreeM.S.
Degree DisciplineDepartment of Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Degree GrantorBurnett College of Biomedical Sciences
Degree ProgramMolecular and Microbiology MS
Graduation Date2008-01-01
TypeMaster's thesis
Access LevelCampus - Allow Only UCF Community Access
Release Date2013-11-01
RepositoryUniversity Archives
Repository CollectionElectronic Theses and Dissertations
IdentifierCFE0002375
Access Linkhttp://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002375

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