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Credit: USDA
E coli bacteria may enable inexpensive production of a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine, according to a paper published in Infection and Immunity.
Scientists used E coli to create a new process to purify and refold codon harmonized recombinant Pfs25 (CHrPfs25).
Pfs25 is a sexual-stage antigen of Plasmodium falciparum expressed on the surface of zygote and ookinete forms of the parasite.
Research has shown that monoclonal antibodies directed against native Pfs25 can prevent development of P falciparum oocysts in the midgut of the mosquito.
So Pfs25 is a potential vaccine candidate, but producing it has proven challenging and costly.
“Malaria affects the poorest of the poor,” said study author Nirbhay Kumar, PhD, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“And if you are trying to make a vaccine for those billions of people who are at risk, you need to make it cheaper to manufacture. We think that producing this protein in bacteria will make it very cost-effective for large-scale vaccine production.”
To create the vaccine for the current study, Dr Kumar and his colleagues expressed CHrPfs25 in E coli, purified the protein after simple oxidative refolding steps, and formulated it in several adjuvants.
The team then tested the final product in mice. Antibodies present after vaccination recognized native Pfs25 on the surface of live gametes of P falciparum and demonstrated complete malaria transmission-blocking activity.
The transmission-blocking efficacy of CHrPfs25 was 100% whether the researchers were testing Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes or Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes.
Dr Kumar said the next step for this research will be to develop a version of the vaccine that can be used in clinical trials.
Transmission-blocking vaccines, though not yet widely tested in humans, have the potential to be used in conjunction with more traditional malaria vaccines and other interventions—such as malaria drugs and bed nets—to fight the disease and ultimately aid in the gradual elimination of malaria parasites. 
Credit: USDA
E coli bacteria may enable inexpensive production of a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine, according to a paper published in Infection and Immunity.
Scientists used E coli to create a new process to purify and refold codon harmonized recombinant Pfs25 (CHrPfs25).
Pfs25 is a sexual-stage antigen of Plasmodium falciparum expressed on the surface of zygote and ookinete forms of the parasite.
Research has shown that monoclonal antibodies directed against native Pfs25 can prevent development of P falciparum oocysts in the midgut of the mosquito.
So Pfs25 is a potential vaccine candidate, but producing it has proven challenging and costly.
“Malaria affects the poorest of the poor,” said study author Nirbhay Kumar, PhD, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“And if you are trying to make a vaccine for those billions of people who are at risk, you need to make it cheaper to manufacture. We think that producing this protein in bacteria will make it very cost-effective for large-scale vaccine production.”
To create the vaccine for the current study, Dr Kumar and his colleagues expressed CHrPfs25 in E coli, purified the protein after simple oxidative refolding steps, and formulated it in several adjuvants.
The team then tested the final product in mice. Antibodies present after vaccination recognized native Pfs25 on the surface of live gametes of P falciparum and demonstrated complete malaria transmission-blocking activity.
The transmission-blocking efficacy of CHrPfs25 was 100% whether the researchers were testing Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes or Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes.
Dr Kumar said the next step for this research will be to develop a version of the vaccine that can be used in clinical trials.
Transmission-blocking vaccines, though not yet widely tested in humans, have the potential to be used in conjunction with more traditional malaria vaccines and other interventions—such as malaria drugs and bed nets—to fight the disease and ultimately aid in the gradual elimination of malaria parasites.
Credit: USDA
E coli bacteria may enable inexpensive production of a transmission-blocking malaria vaccine, according to a paper published in Infection and Immunity.
Scientists used E coli to create a new process to purify and refold codon harmonized recombinant Pfs25 (CHrPfs25).
Pfs25 is a sexual-stage antigen of Plasmodium falciparum expressed on the surface of zygote and ookinete forms of the parasite.
Research has shown that monoclonal antibodies directed against native Pfs25 can prevent development of P falciparum oocysts in the midgut of the mosquito.
So Pfs25 is a potential vaccine candidate, but producing it has proven challenging and costly.
“Malaria affects the poorest of the poor,” said study author Nirbhay Kumar, PhD, of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“And if you are trying to make a vaccine for those billions of people who are at risk, you need to make it cheaper to manufacture. We think that producing this protein in bacteria will make it very cost-effective for large-scale vaccine production.”
To create the vaccine for the current study, Dr Kumar and his colleagues expressed CHrPfs25 in E coli, purified the protein after simple oxidative refolding steps, and formulated it in several adjuvants.
The team then tested the final product in mice. Antibodies present after vaccination recognized native Pfs25 on the surface of live gametes of P falciparum and demonstrated complete malaria transmission-blocking activity.
The transmission-blocking efficacy of CHrPfs25 was 100% whether the researchers were testing Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes or Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes.
Dr Kumar said the next step for this research will be to develop a version of the vaccine that can be used in clinical trials.
Transmission-blocking vaccines, though not yet widely tested in humans, have the potential to be used in conjunction with more traditional malaria vaccines and other interventions—such as malaria drugs and bed nets—to fight the disease and ultimately aid in the gradual elimination of malaria parasites.