Overcoming antigenic diversity of malaria vaccine candidates for better protection

What is it about?

Overcoming antigenic diversity is a key challenge in the development of effective . Strategies that promote the generation of immune responses against conserved epitopes (regions that do not vary between strains) may provide better protection. Understanding differences between vaccine-induced and naturally acquired immunity is important to achieving this goal. We found that vaccination generated markedly different responses to polymorphic antigens than naturally acquired immunity and that it was possible the generate antibodies to conserved epitopes that functioned to neutralize or block malaria. Induction of antibodies targeting conserved regions of malaria antigens provides a promising vaccine strategy to overcome antigenic diversity for developing effective malaria vaccines.

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Why is it important?

There is a continuing strong need for an effective malaria vaccine to enhance control and elimination efforts. Persisting challenges in malaria vaccine development are polymorphisms and antigenic diversity (or strain variation) in leading vaccine candidates, which impacts on vaccine efficacy. Surprisingly, we found that the vaccine-generated antibodies predominantly targeting conserved C-terminal epitopes, in striking contrast to allele-specific naturally acquired antibodies that predominantly targeted polymorphic epitopes. This provided the first clear evidence that a P. falciparum subunit vaccine in humans can redirect responses to conserved and functional epitopes.

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