Cocktail of AMA1 Proteins can Improve Effectiveness of Malaria Vaccine

A cocktail of AMA1 proteins of a few different strains can be effective in overcoming major limitations of earlier versions of AMA1 based malaria vaccine.

A cocktail of AMA1 proteins of a few different strains can be effective in overcoming major limitations of earlier versions of AMA1 based malaria vaccine, a new study conducted by researchers, including one of Indian origin, said.

A team led by led by Sheetij Dutta, from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, USA, focused on a protein called AMA1 needed by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite to invade blood cells and cause disease.

Malaria - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prevention, Treatment
Malaria is caused by a parasite that enters blood through the bite of an infected mosquito. It is characterized by fever, vomiting, shivering, sweating and other symptoms.

The challenge with the malaria parasite in general and its AMA1 surface protein in particular is that both exist as multiple strains. Using AMA1 in a vaccine readies the human immune system for subsequent encounters with the parasite, but when such a vaccine was previously tested in humans, it was effective mostly against one particular P. falciparum strain.

To explore the potential for a more broadly protective vaccine, the scientists tested different cocktails of AMA1 from different parasite strains for their ability to elicit a diverse range of antibodies that are active in parasite inhibition assays.

They confirmed that a cocktail of AMA1 proteins from three different parasite strains was better than one or two, and one they call Quadvax, which contained AMA1 proteins derived from four different strains, led to an antibody response that was broader than the sum of strain-specific antibodies elicited by the four individual strains.

About Mosquito Diseases
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Moreover, Quadvax-elicited antibodies inhibited a range of parasites, including many strains that were different from those in the Quadvax mix. In different laboratory tests, Quadvax-induced antibodies inhibited the growth of 26 different parasite strains, and the scientists suggest that "the combination of four AMA1 variants in Quadvax may be sufficient to overcome global AMA1 diversity".

The study is published in journal PLOS Pathogens.