Keywords
Malaria, Plants, Immunology
Abstract
Malaria 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.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2008
Advisor
Chakrabarti, Debopam
Degree
Master of Science (M.S.)
College
Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences
Department
Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Degree Program
Molecular and Microbiology
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0002375
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002375
Language
English
Release Date
November 2013
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Masters Thesis (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Schreiber, Melissa, "Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Chloroplast-derived Antigensagainst Malaria" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3716.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/3716