A vaccine targeting the L9 epitope of the malaria circumsporozoite protein confers protection from blood-stage infection in a mouse challenge model

Lucie Jelínková; Yevel Flores-Garcia; Sarah Shapiro; Bryce T Roberts; Nikolai Petrovsky; Fidel Zavala; Bryce Chackerian

doi:10.1038/s41541-022-00457-1

A vaccine targeting the L9 epitope of the malaria circumsporozoite protein confers protection from blood-stage infection in a mouse challenge model

NPJ Vaccines. 2022 Mar 8;7(1):34. doi: 10.1038/s41541-022-00457-1.

Authors

Lucie Jelínková¹, Yevel Flores-Garcia², Sarah Shapiro², Bryce T Roberts¹, Nikolai Petrovsky^{3

4}, Fidel Zavala², Bryce Chackerian⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
² W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Malaria Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Vaxine Pty Ltd., 11 Walkley Avenue, Warradale, Adelaide, 5046, Australia.
⁴ College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, 5042, Australia.
⁵ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA. bchackerian@salud.unm.edu.

Abstract

Pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines that induce high-titer, durable antibody responses can potentially provide protection from infection. Here, we engineered a virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine targeting a recently described vulnerable epitope at the N-terminus of the central repeat region of the Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein that is recognized by the potently inhibitory monoclonal antibody L9 and show that immunization with L9 VLPs induces strong antibody responses that provide protection from blood-stage malaria in a mouse infection model.

Abstract

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