Ravetch J V, Kochan J, Perkins M
Science. 1985 Mar 29;227(4694):1593-7. doi: 10.1126/science.3883491.
Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of the malarial parasites that infect humans, undergoes three cycles of development in its vertebrate host and elicits stage-specific immune responses. This stage specificity of the immune response has made it difficult to isolate antigens that would be useful in developing a vaccine against malaria. A complementary DNA clone for a glycophorin-binding protein of Plasmodium falciparum merozoites has been isolated and characterized. The protein interacts with glycophorin, the erythrocyte receptor, during invasion of the host cell by the parasite. Antigenic determinants of this protein expressed in Escherichia coli have been used to produce antibodies to a glycophorin-binding protein. The antibodies show schizont-specific immunofluorescence and react with the merozoite protein. The primary sequence of these determinants reveals a 150-nucleotide tandem-repeating sequence coding for a 50-amino-acid repeat. The characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum glycophorin-binding protein represents one approach toward designing serologic agents to block the parasite's development in the vertebrate host.
恶性疟原虫是感染人类的最致命疟原虫，在其脊椎动物宿主体内经历三个发育周期，并引发阶段特异性免疫反应。免疫反应的这种阶段特异性使得难以分离出可用于开发疟疾疫苗的抗原。已分离并鉴定了恶性疟原虫裂殖子的血型糖蛋白结合蛋白的互补DNA克隆。在寄生虫侵入宿主细胞期间，该蛋白与红细胞受体血型糖蛋白相互作用。在大肠杆菌中表达的该蛋白的抗原决定簇已用于产生针对血型糖蛋白结合蛋白的抗体。这些抗体显示裂殖体特异性免疫荧光，并与裂殖子蛋白发生反应。这些决定簇的一级序列揭示了一个150个核苷酸的串联重复序列，编码一个50个氨基酸的重复序列。恶性疟原虫血型糖蛋白结合蛋白的表征代表了设计血清学试剂以阻断寄生虫在脊椎动物宿主体内发育的一种方法。
