Fundación Instituto de Inmunología de Colombia (FIDIC), Bogota, Colombia.
Infect Genet Evol. 2010 Mar;10(2):261-7. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2009.12.004. Epub 2009 Dec 22.
Proteins involved in parasite adhesion and invasion are considered the best candidates for the development of asexual blood-stage antimalarial vaccines. Such vaccine candidates should be accessible by the immune system and have limited diversity. Considering the promising results obtained in previous trials by immunizing monkeys with the rhoptry-associated proteins 1 and 2 (RAP-1 and RAP-2), here we assessed the genetic variability of the Plasmodium vivax rap-1 and rap-2 genes isolated from Colombian parasite populations. Limited sequence diversity was found in these genes, possibly as a result of a functional/structural restriction. The presence of several haplotypes at relatively low frequencies and the excess of singleton mutations suggests that a demographic process might be affecting the loci. Our results support the inclusion of PvRAP-1 and PvRAP-2 in the design of an antimalarial subunit-based vaccine against P. vivax, which would avoid inducing allele-specific immunity.
与寄生虫黏附和入侵相关的蛋白被认为是开发无性生活史疟原虫疫苗的最佳候选物。此类疫苗候选物应能被免疫系统识别，且多样性有限。考虑到之前用 rhoptry 相关蛋白 1 和 2（RAP-1 和 RAP-2）免疫猴子的试验取得了良好的结果，本研究评估了从哥伦比亚寄生虫群体中分离出的间日疟原虫 rap-1 和 rap-2 基因的遗传变异情况。这些基因的序列多样性有限，可能是由于功能/结构限制所致。相对较低频率下存在多个单倍型和大量的单态突变提示，可能有一个种群过程在影响这些基因座。本研究结果支持将 PvRAP-1 和 PvRAP-2 纳入针对间日疟原虫的基于亚单位的抗疟疫苗设计，以避免诱导针对特定等位基因的免疫。
