Different regions of the malaria merozoite surface protein 1 of Plasmodium chabaudi elicit distinct T-cell and antibody isotype responses.

In this study we have investigated the antibody and CD4 T-cell responses to the well-characterized malaria vaccine candidate MSP-1 during the course of a primary Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi (AS) infection. Specific antibody responses can be detected within the first week of infection, and CD4 T cells can be detected after 3 weeks of infection. The magnitude of the CD4 T-cell response elicited during a primary infection depended upon the region of MSP-1. In general, the highest precursor frequencies were obtained when a recombinant MSP-1 fragment corresponding to amino acids 900 to 1507 was used as the antigen in vitro. By contrast, proliferative and cytokine responses against amino acids 1508 to 1766 containing the C-terminal 21-kDa region of the molecule were low. The characteristic interleukin 4 (IL-4) switch that occurs in the CD4 T-cell population after an acute blood stage P. c. chabaudi infection was only consistently observed in the response to the amino acid 900 to 1507 MSP1 fragment. A lower frequency of IL-4-producing cells was seen in response to other regions. Although the magnitudes of the immunoglobulin G antibody responses to the different regions of MSP-1 were similar, the isotype composition of each response was distinct, and there was no obvious relationship with the type of T helper cells generated. Interestingly, a relatively high antibody response to the C-terminal region of MSP-1 was observed, suggesting that T-cell epitopes outside of this region may provide the necessary cognate help for specific antibody production.