Faber Bart W, Remarque Edmond J, Morgan William D, Kocken Clemens H M, Holder Anthony A, Thomas Alan W
Department of Parasitology, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Lange Kleiweg 157, 2288 GJ Rijswijk, The Netherlands.
Infect Immun. 2007 Dec;75(12):5947-55. doi: 10.1128/IAI.01804-06. Epub 2007 Oct 15.
We show that the smallest module of Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 (PfAMA1) that can be expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris while retaining the capacity to induce high levels of parasite-inhibitory antibodies comprises domains I and II. Based on this, two fusion proteins, differing in the order of the modules, were developed. Each comprised one module of PfAMA1 (FVO strain, amino acids [aa] 97 to 442) (module A) and one module of PfMSP1(19) (Wellcome strain, aa 1526 to 1621) (module Mm) in which a cystine had been removed to improve immune responses. Both fusion proteins retained the antigenicity of each component and yielded over 30 mg/liter purified protein under fed-batch fermentation. Rabbits immunized with purified fusion proteins MmA and AMm had up to eightfold-higher immune responses to MSP1(19) than those of rabbits immunized with module Mm alone or Mm mixed with module A. In terms of parasite growth inhibition, fusion did not diminish the induction of inhibitory antibodies compared with immunization with module A alone or module A mixed with module Mm, and fusion outperformed antibodies induced by immunization with module M or Mm alone. When tested against parasites expressing AMA1 heterologous to the immunogen, antibodies to the fusion proteins inhibited parasite growth to a greater extent than did antibodies either to the individual antigens or to the mixture. These results suggest that compared with the individual modules delivered separately or as a mixture, fusion proteins containing these two modules offer the potential for significant vaccine-related advantages in terms of ease of production, immunogenicity, and functionality.
我们发现,恶性疟原虫AMA1(PfAMA1)中能够在毕赤酵母中表达并保留诱导高水平寄生虫抑制性抗体能力的最小模块包含结构域I和结构域II。基于此,开发了两种模块顺序不同的融合蛋白。每种融合蛋白都包含一个PfAMA1模块(FVO株,氨基酸[aa]97至442)(模块A)和一个PfMSP1(19)模块(威康株,aa 1526至1621)(模块Mm),其中去除了一个胱氨酸以改善免疫反应。两种融合蛋白都保留了各组分的抗原性,在补料分批发酵下产生的纯化蛋白超过30 mg/升。用纯化的融合蛋白MmA和AMm免疫的兔子对MSP1(19)的免疫反应比单独用模块Mm或Mm与模块A混合免疫的兔子高八倍。在寄生虫生长抑制方面,与单独用模块A或模块A与模块Mm混合免疫相比,融合并没有减少抑制性抗体的诱导,并且融合比单独用模块M或Mm免疫诱导的抗体表现更好。当针对表达与免疫原异源的AMA1的寄生虫进行测试时,融合蛋白的抗体比单独抗原或混合物的抗体更能抑制寄生虫生长。这些结果表明,与单独或作为混合物递送的单个模块相比,包含这两个模块的融合蛋白在生产便利性、免疫原性和功能性方面具有显著的疫苗相关优势。