Primary structure of the variable region of monoclonal antibody 2B10, capable of inducing anti-idiotypic antibodies that recognize the C-terminal region of MSA-1 of Plasmodium falciparum.

Previously, we reported on the properties of a monoclonal antibody, 2B10, which has the same determinant on the human erythrocyte as MSA-1 of Plasmodium falciparum (FCR3 strain); the binding of both ligands to erythrocyte receptors was totally sialic acid dependent. In this work, rabbit anti-2B10 idiopathic antibodies were generated. The anti-idiotypic antibodies recognized both the erythrocyte binding site of 2B10 and the C-terminal region of MSA-1 (amino acids 1047 to 1640); they were able to inhibit 2B10 and MSA-1 binding to erythrocytes and partially prevent P. falciparum merozoites from invading erythrocytes. The utility of 2B10 in the study of the interaction between MSA-1 and human erythrocytes prompted us to determine the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of its VH and VL regions. The data show that the 2B10 VH region is part of the J558 family and is especially homologous to BALB/c anti-nitrophenyl monoclonal antibody 21.1.43; the VL region belongs to the VK1 subgroup and comes from the same genomic locus as (NZB x W)F1 anti-DNA and C57BL anti-dextran monoclonal antibodies BXW-14 and 42.48.12.2, respectively. Most of the differences among the VH and VL segments are located in CDR1 and -3. The binding site of 2B10 contains both negatively and positively charged amino acid residues. The amino acid sequences of the 2B10 VH region and a region of MSA-1 from the Wellcome strain of P. falciparum (amino acids 1002 to 1115) share 43% similarity, and the amino acid sequences between the 2B10 VL region and another segment of the same MSA-1 (amino acids 1247 to 1394) share 48% similarity. We conclude that the interactions between erythrocyte receptors and their ligands, 2B10 and MSA-1, are related and that the C-terminal region of MSA-1 is the erythrocyte binding domain.