Subdomain of Plasmodium apical membrane antigen 1 ectodomain produced.

2004 OCT 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers have produced the subdomains of the Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 ectodomain.

"The apical membrane antigen 1 of Plasmodium falciparum is one of the leading candidate antigens being developed as a vaccine to prevent malaria. This merozoite transmembrane protein has an ectodomain that can be divided into three subdomains (D I, D II, and D III). We have previously expressed a major portion of this ectodomain and have shown that it can induce antibodies that prevent merozoite invasion into red blood cells in an in vitro growth and invasion assay," scientists in the United States report.

"To analyze the antibody responses directed against the individual subdomains, we constructed six different genes that express each of the domains separately (D I, D II, or D III) or in combination with another domain (D I+II, D II+III, or D I+III)," said P. V. Lalitha and colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. "These proteins were purified and used to immunize rabbits to raise construct-specific antibodies. We ...