Mapping of the region predominantly recognized by antibodies to the Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface antigen MSA 1.

The locations of the epitopes of a panel of mouse monoclonal antibodies directed against the Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface antigen MSA 1 were mapped by using naturally occurring processed fragments, by chemical cleavage of the protein and by comparison of the isolate-specificity of binding with known sequence variation. By these criteria, the most antigenic region occurs in the cysteine-rich, invariant 19-kDa carboxyl terminal domain with 12/19 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) binding to this region. One of these mAbs recognized an epitope near the C-terminal putative glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor site. This was the only mAb which significantly inhibited parasite growth in vitro. The other mAbs recognized conformational epitopes involving the cysteine residues located throughout this fragment. This study has identified further naturally occurring processing sites and a consensus processing site sequence is now emerging.